27% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Twenty-seven percent (27%) 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 May 21. 

This finding is down two points from 29% the week before. 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-five percent (65%) now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, up one point from last week.

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 May 17-21, 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 72% of voters not affiliated with either major political party say the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are evenly divided. 

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

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of blacks now think the country is heading in the right direction. Forty-seven percent (47%) think it is on the wrong track, a view shared by 70% of whites and 56% of other minority voters.

Most voters still want to make major changes in the new national health care law or dump it completely. 

Even though voters are more convinced that the radical Islamic State group (ISIS) is winning the war in Iraq, they are less enthusiastic than ever about sending U.S. troops back into action to do something about it.

Few Americans say they use mass transit regularly, but they remain confident in its safety despite the recent Amtrak train derailment near Philadelphia that killed eight people. 

Americans are slightly less negative about the job prospects for the latest batch of college graduates but still aren’t very confident these graduates have much to offer prospective employers. 

No wonder voters don’t think they’re getting a good return on their investment in the public schools.

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