Americans’ optimism about country’s direction drops nearly 20 points since May: Poll
Thomas McDonald
|
Pessimism over America’s future is growing among American adults, according to a new poll.
A majority, 55%, of Americans say they are pessimistic about the direction of the country, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll. In May, that number was only 36%.
RELATED: Biden flagged by Twitter users for spreading ‘misinformation’ during CNN townhall
“This marks a nearly 20-point decline in optimism from late April, the last time this question was asked. At that time, 64% were optimistic about the year ahead,” the poll reads. Less than half, 45%, now report feeling optimistic about the country’s outlook for the next 12 months, “a significant drop from about two-thirds (64%) in the May poll.”
The decline in optimism over America’s future is shared across all party lines. Optimism is down 20 points among Republicans and Democrats and down 26 points among registered Independents.
Approval of Biden’s handling of the pandemic is also down 9 points since March. About 6 in 10, 63%, approve of the president’s response to the coronavirus, according to the poll.
RELATED: Biden’s DOJ won’t investigate Dem governors accused of causing nursing home deaths
The ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted July 23 to July 24, 2021, among a sample of 527 general population adults age 18 or older. “The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 5.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level,” according to the poll’s authors.
The drop in Americans’ optimism comes as a poll released last month found that more voters question the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 election win than actually voted for him.
RELATED: Fewer number of voters now believe Biden won ‘fairly’ than actually voted for him: poll
A survey of likely U.S. voters conducted June 20 to 21, 2021 by Rassmussen Reports found that 55% support forensic audits of the 2020 presidential election. 50% of voters believe Biden won “fairly” and 41% of voters do not. The number of voters who do not believe he won fairly is up from 34% in February.