A shocking new survey from NBC News makes it clear why President Joe Biden’s approval ratings are continuing to head “towards the center of the earth,” as Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) observed during a Friday interview.
The country is deeply divided, most Americans believe political polarization is rising, and they feel like they are worse off under Biden, economically and otherwise.
The network reports:
Overwhelming majorities of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, that their household income is falling behind the cost of living, that political polarization will only continue and that there’s a real threat to the nation’s democracy and majority rule.
What’s more, the nation’s top politicians and political parties are more unpopular than popular, and interest in the upcoming November midterms is down — not up.
And when Americans were asked to describe where they believe America is today, the top answers were “downhill,” “divisive,” “negative,” “struggling,” “lost” and “bad.”
Those are the grim findings of a new national NBC News poll conducted less than 10 months before the midterm elections, when control of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House and governors’ mansions across the country will be up for grabs.
“Downhill, divided, doubting democracy, falling behind, and tuning out — this is how Americans are feeling as they’re heading into 2022,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
Democrats, however, are currently in control of the two law- and policymaking branches of government, meaning they are likely going to suffer the most during the coming midterms, the network allowed.
“There is nothing but flashing red lights and warning signs for Democrats,” said McInturff, the Republican pollster.
Here are some of the survey’s results:
— 72 percent of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction — essentially unchanged from the 71 percent who held this view in October’s NBC News poll.
“In the three instances when this sustained dark outlook coincided with an election year, it foreshadowed bad news for the party in power — 1992, 2008 and 2016,” said Horwitt, the Democratic pollster.
KNOW MORE: Democrats Know They Are In Trouble In the 2022 Midterms: Here’s How
That said, Democrats were in power in 1994 and Republicans won historic numbers of seats in Congress, flipping the House to GOP control for the first time in 40 years. Also, in 2010, Obama’s first midterm, Republicans won big in Congress as well, going on to take back the Senate in the 2014 midterms as well.
— On the economy, while job creation is up and the unemployment rate is down, 61 percent of respondents in the poll say their family’s income is falling behind the cost of living.
— On the state of the nation’s politics, 70 percent agree with the statement that America has become so polarized that it can no longer solve the major issues facing the country — and that those differences will only continue to grow.
— And on the state of democracy, a whopping 76 percent of Americans — including 7 in 10 Democrats, Republicans and independents — believe there is a threat to democracy and majority rule in this country.