28% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Likely U.S. Voters now think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending July 30.

This finding is down a point from 29% the week before. Following the U.S. Supreme Court decisions upholding Obamacare and gay marriage, the number of voters who said the country is heading in the right direction climbed into the 30s and stayed there for three weeks.

From late December through the beginning of March, 30% or more of voters said every week that the country is heading in the right direction, but the weekly findings fell back into the mid- to high 20s after that. A year ago at this time, 24% felt the country was heading in the right direction, while 68% thought it was on the wrong track.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, up two points from a week earlier.

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The national telephone survey of 2,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from July 26-30, 2015. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Eighty-six percent (86%) of Republicans and 66% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are almost evenly divided.

Most voters of all ages agree the country is headed in the wrong direction, but voters under 40 are slightly less pessimistic than their elders. 

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of whites believe the country is headed down the wrong track, as do 58% of blacks and 61% of other minority voters.

Liberals are far more confident about the direction of the country than conservatives and moderates are. 

Among voters who disapprove of the job President Obama is doing, 85% or more think the country is heading in the wrong direction. 

Voters still tend to think America’s best days have come and gone. But most also continue to believe America is a good place to live.

The president’s monthly job approval rating was up two points in July.

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of voters think it is more important for Congress and the president to work together to achieve what’s best for the country rather than to stand for what they believe in.

Voters are okay with legal immigration and those who come to the United State to pursue the American Dream, but they strongly believe those immigrants should assimilate.

When it comes to hot-button issues facing the nation, does age matter?

FBI Director James Comey recently announced that the radical Islamic State group (ISIS) now poses a bigger security threat to the United States than al-Qaeda does.  Americans appear to agree.

Voters still don't think much of U.S. public schools in general and the graduates they produce.

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