POLL RELEASES April 23, 2001
Americans' Satisfaction With U.S. Depends on President's Party Partisans more likely to be satisfied with the way things are going in the United State when the president is of own party
by Deborah Jordan Brooks
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- For 22 years, Gallup has asked Americans "In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time? "The answer, an indicator of the public mood, has varied within a 60-point range over the years, reaching a low of 12% in July 1979 and a high of 71% in February 1999. In an April 6-8 2001, Gallup poll, the percentage of Americans who are satisfied is closer to the upper end of that range, at 50%.
The variation in these ratings over the years suggests that the public reacts to what they see happening around them. The lowest point, in 1979, came in the midst of rampant inflation and long gas lines, and the 1999 high point coincided with a strong economy and stock boom.
Between 1979, when Gallup first asked this satisfaction question, and the present, the political party in the White House changed three times -- from Democratic to Republican in 1980, from Republican to Democrat in 1992, and from Democrat to Republican in 2000. Two of these transitions were accompanied by overall increases in satisfaction. In the summer of 1992, prior to George Bush's defeat by Bill Clinton, public satisfaction with the way things were going in the United States was very low (14%), but that figure more than doubled soon after the election. The trend of low satisfaction prior to the election and higher satisfaction after it was evident in the transition between Carter and Reagan (though the increase in satisfaction, from only 12% to 33%, was delayed for several months into Reagan's first term). The recent election of George W. Bush has not, of yet at least, produced an uptick in satisfaction, but rather a modest fall to 50% from 63% in August 2000.
Whatever the overall change in satisfaction levels, a more in-depth analysis reveals important differences beneath the surface. A review of the last 22 years shows that Americans' satisfaction is strongly related to their party affiliation in conjunction with that of the president in the White House. Holding everything else constant, Democrats tend to view the world around them with higher levels of satisfaction when a Democrat is in the White House, and are less satisfied when the president is a Republican. Republicans exhibit the same patterns -- they express high satisfaction levels when a Republican is in the White House and significantly lower levels when a Democrat is in charge.
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