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32% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Thirty-two percent (32%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending March 12. 

This finding is up three points from the previous week. The week ending January 25, the percentage of voters who felt the country was heading in the right direction hit 35%, the highest level of confidence in nearly two years but had been trending down since then. The number of voters who think the country is heading in the right direction had been 30% or higher since mid-December after being in the mid- to high 20s most weeks since mid-June 2013.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of voters now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, down three points from the week before.

A year ago at this time, 29% felt the country was heading in the right direction, while 62% 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 March 8-12, 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.

The older the voter, the more likely he or she is to believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Democrats say the country is headed in the right direction. Eighty percent (80%) of Republicans and 64% of voters not affiliated with either major political party say it's on the wrong track.

Black voters are evenly divided over the direction of the country. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of whites say it's headed down the wrong track, but other minority voters by a 50% to 40% margin disagree.

The more money one earns, the more likely he or she is to think the country is heading in the right direction, but even among those who earn $100,000 or more a year, more than half say the country is headed down the wrong track. 

Veterans and those with an immediate family member in the military are more likely to think the country is on the wrong track than those who don't have family experience with the armed services. 

Overall confidence in the U.S. military is at an all-time high.

Most voters continue to put reducing health care costs ahead of requiring everyone to have health insurance and think keeping the government out of the market is the best way to reduce those costs. 

The U.S. Justice Department last week charged police in Ferguson, Missouri with a widespread pattern of racial discrimination, prompting the police chief to resign, but few voters expect Ferguson to become any safer. But then very few think the federal government is much help to local police.

Americans view the Boy Scouts of America more positively than they have in nearly two years but still like the Girl Scouts better. It could be the cookies.

Some have suggested making voting mandatory in the United States to raise turnout and create “a more moderate and more representative electorate.” But voters strongly reject that idea. 

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The national telephone survey of 2,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from March 8-12, 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.

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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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