25% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Just 25% 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 November 30. 

This finding is down one point from the previous week. The number of voters who think the country is on the right course has now ranged from 23% to 27% nearly every week since early June and has been below 30% most weeks since June of last year.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of voters now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, up two points from last week. 

Voters remain pessimistic about the overall direction of the country despite a jump in worker confidence to its highest level in six years.

A year ago at this time, the findings were identical: 25% said the country was heading in the right direction, while 67% thought it was headed down the wrong track.

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The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from November 24-25 and November 30, 2014. 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-seven percent (87%) of Republicans and 67% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats agree by a 48% to 42% margin.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of whites and 57% of other minority voters say the country is on the wrong track. Blacks disagree by a narrow 45% to 41% margin. 

Voters under 40 are only slightly less pessimistic than their elders.

Seventy percent (70%) of investors and 63% of non-investors say the country is headed in the wrong direction. 

Military veterans are more pessimistic than those who have not served in uniform. 

Only 36% of all Americans think the Founding Fathers would consider the United States a success today.

Few Americans have ever thought about renouncing their citizenship, though.

A plurality of voters still believes the U.S. justice system is fair to black and Hispanic Americans following the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting case in Ferguson, Missouri. But there also continues to be a wide difference of opinion between whites and other voters.

For the first time, most voters want Congress to fix the new national health care law rather than repeal it.

Voters want Congress to stop Obama’s new plan to protect up to five million illegal immigrants from deportation.

Despite their concern about the direction of the country, an overwhelming majority of Americans said they have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

Crosstabs and historical data are available to Platinum Members only. 

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