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34% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Confidence in the direction of the country has jumped following the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on Obamacare and gay marriage. 

Thirty-four percent (34%) 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 2.

This finding is up eight points from 26% the week before which tied the low for the year and is the highest level of confidence since early February. From late December through the beginning of March, 30% or more of voters said every week that the country was heading in the right direction, but the weekly findings had fallen back into the mid- to high 20s since then.

Sixty-one percent (61%) now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, down six points from a week earlier.

This reflects the first full week of polling since the Supreme Court rulings. It will be interesting to see whether this level of confidence holds steady or grows or whether it falls back again in the weeks ahead. 

A year ago at this time, 25% felt the country was heading in the right direction, while 67% thought it was on the wrong track.

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The national telephone survey of 2,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from June 28-July 2, 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-three percent (83%) of Republicans and 67% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track, consistent with earlier surveying. But now 58% of Democrats think the country is going in the right direction, up from 44% the week before. 

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

Sixty-five percent (65%) of whites and 56% of other minority voters believe the country is headed down the wrong track, but just 43% of black voters agree.

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

The more strongly a voter approves of President Obama's performance, the more likely he or she is to think the country is headed in the right direction. 

Voters are closely divided over both major Supreme Court rulings, but younger voters are more likely to favor the decisions than their elders.

Negative views of the U.S. Supreme Court are at their highest level in nearly nine years of regular surveying. But positive opinions are also up to a less dramatic three-year high. 

Voters believe more strongly that individual states should have the right to ignore the federal courts

For the first time in over four years, over half of U.S. voters believe that the United States is a more dangerous place than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Obama earned a monthly job approval of 47% in June, showing no change from the previous two months and remaining at his 2015 low.

Crosstabs and historical data are available to Platinum Members only.

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The national telephone survey of 2,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from June 28-July 2, 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.

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

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