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48% Say America’s Best Days Are in the Past

While a plurality of voters continue to feel America’s best days are behind us, most still feel U.S. society is fair and decent.

A new Rasmussen reports national telephone survey finds that 40% of Likely U.S. Voters say the country’s best days are in the future, but 48% say they’re in the past.  Another 12% are not sure.  These findings have remained fairly consistent for several years now.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Two-out-of three voters (66%) say, generally speaking, American society is fair and decent, a view that has ranged from a low of 54% to a high of 74% since November 2006.  Only 19% now feel society is unfair and discriminatory, and another 14% are undecided. 

When asked how President Obama views society, voters nationwide are evenly divided:  40% say the president views society as fair and decent, while slightly more (42%) say he sees society as unfair and discriminatory.  Seventeen percent (17%) are not sure.  For the most part, voter sentiments on the president’s views of society have been evenly divided since just after Election Day in 2008. 

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.  

The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on February 16-17, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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