26% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

The number of voters who think the country is heading in the right direction has fallen to its lowest level since mid-December. 

Twenty-six percent (26%) 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 April 23. 

This finding is down six points from 32% the week before and down from 29% for the three weeks prior to that. The previous low for the year was 27% in mid-March. In January and February, 30% or more of voters said the country was heading in the right direction after generally being in the mid- to high 20s since mid-June 2013.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, up five points from the prior week and a high for the year.

A year ago at this time, 27% felt the country was heading in the right direction, while 66% 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 April 19-23, 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.

Eighty-six percent (86%) of Republicans and 72% of voters not affiliated with either major political party say the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are almost evenly divided.

Just 39% of blacks now think the country is heading in the right direction, down from 56% last week. Fifty-one percent (51%) think it is on the wrong track, a view shared by 70% of whites and 60% of other minority voters.

Men are more likely than women to say the country is on the right track. 

Nearly two-out-of-three Americans believe there is too much government power and too little individual freedom in the United States today.

Only 37% of voters think America’s best days are in the future, while 45% still believe the country’s best days have already come and gone.

Congress is debating whether to give the president more power to negotiate free trade deals with other countries. Americans are a little less enthusiastic about free trade, even though they admit it’s better for consumers. But they’re also more likely now to see it as a job killer. 

Obamacare remains the law of the land, but most voters still don’t like the national health care law.

Voters still oppose President Obama’s plan to exempt up to five million illegal immigrants from deportation, with more than ever saying he doesn’t have the legal authority to take such action.

Americans see a need for big lifestyle changes to protect the environment, but very few think that's likely to happen, especially if it costs them more money.

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