In Focus: 81% of Americans Say Country Going to Hell
A new poll shows that the vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction in which the country is headed. Their specific gripes, and prescriptions for how to fix what's wrong, may surprise you.
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A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 81% of Americans thinks “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track” in this country. At issue, of course, is the unpopularity of President Bush and Congress, the war in Iraq, and — weightiest on respondents’ minds — the dire economy.
There were some counterintuitive results, such as:
The poll found that Americans blame government officials for the crisis more than banks or home buyers and other borrowers. Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers.
Which might indicate that people pay closer attention to interest rates than they do to junk securities merchants. And:
More broadly, 43 percent of those surveyed they would prefer a larger government that provided more services, which is tied for the highest such number since The Times and CBS began asking the question in 1991. But an identical 43 percent said they wanted a smaller government that provided fewer services.
Given the extraordinary growth of government services under the current administration, it’s not hard to see why there is such an evenly distributed antagonism between the desirability of federal bail-outs, and laissez-faire, let-the-market-fix-itself sentiment. Also, financial institutions get no love, while respondents sympathize more with individuals affected by the mortgage crisis.
Firedoglake blames the man in charge, and cautions against the man who would be in charge: “Just like George Bush, John McCain has been on the wrong side of every issue important to voters: he approved the Fed’s Bear Stearns bailout, but opposes more regulation and is skeptical about helping homeowners; he supports Bush’s tax cuts for the rich; he’ll stay in Iraq for 100 years, even though Americans and Iraqis want us out.”
naked capitalism says: “For the collective mood to be this negative when the US is at the beginning of a downturn points to at least a couple of culprits. One is that the public believes that this is no ordinary recession in the making. Second is that the unhappiness is about more than the economy, but also about the US’s fallen standing in the world and the patent, unabashed dishonest of many government and business leaders.”
Jonathan Cohn at TNR’s The Plank is bolstered by the favorability of bigger government: “So what’s the political lesson here? On the merits, the case for more aggressive regulation and a stronger safety net–not just in health care, but also banking, pensions, and other areas–has never been stronger. And the insecurity evident in this poll suggests people are becoming more open to these sorts of initiatives–more, certainly, than they have been in a long time.”
Michael Weiss is the New York Editor of Pajamas Media. His blog is Snarksmith.
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41 Comments
1. Ed Wallis:Soooooooooooooo…
…this poll wouldn’t by chance have been done the same NY “Sulzberger” Times, whose Board/owners threaten to overthrow management, due to waaaaaaaay-far-left illusory positions and repeated retractions from outrageous errors?
…or by chance the same CBS which had the renowned Dan Rather fiasco after so many other excessively left-biased embarassments?
Why, I’m shocked, I tell you, absolutely shocked! …and I believe eeeeevery word they say. Can’t wait to hear the irrefutable discussions about it on NPR…. /sarc
Apr 4, 2008 - 11:44 am 2. M.E.:It’s enough to see the name of “New York Times/CBS News poll” for to be sure to have a rough falsification. No. It isn’t Country but New York Times/CBS with their beloved Obama & Co. going to Hell.
Apr 4, 2008 - 12:04 pm 3. Hoodlumman:Only Obama can save us now…
Apr 4, 2008 - 12:12 pm 4. AJ:Ridiculous.
85% of Americans, according to a recent Gallup Poll, are happy with their lives. We live in the greatest country in the world. Do problems occur? Yes. Would most of us want to live anywhere else? Nope. And that is shown by how many want to get INTO American rather than how many want to leave. Did any of those rich liberal elitie hypocrites move to Canada after bush won in 2004? NONE.
Personally, I’d love to watch Pelosi, Streisand and Michelle Obama spend a year in Africa, Eastern Europe or SE Asia, but they’d never do it, of course.
Apr 4, 2008 - 12:19 pm 5. Saltherring:This country does have some serious problems, among them millions of illegal aliens draining resources meant for citizens and legal residents, ever-increasing taxation and government spending, business-stifling regulations, a corrupt and biased news media, a broken public education system, the ongoing threat of Islamofascist terrorism, a steep moral decline, an ever-increasing number of people who will not work yet expect the rest of us to feed and house them, a greedy and foolish mortgage banking industry preying on equally greedy and foolish borrowers, all topped of by the poorist field of presidential candidates in the nation’s history. Yeah, Id say we have a few problems.
Apr 4, 2008 - 12:44 pm 6. david still:love it! an objective poll but you can not accept it. Then show me a poll of your own making or choosing that shows these statistics to be wrong! put up or….
Apr 4, 2008 - 1:19 pm 7. MrLynn:These polls are meaningless. If you simply asked people, “If you think the country is headed in the wrong direction, please name five problems you would like to see addressed, and please list ways you think they can be addressed.”
I’l bet you won’t get the multiple-choice-written-by-liberals responses the Times got. You’ll get Saltherherring’s list (above).
Why do we let the NY Times and CBS generate our ‘news’ for us, thereby painting the picture they want the public to believe?
/Mr Lynn
Apr 4, 2008 - 1:37 pm 8. Increase Mather:It sure looks like the NYTs and CBS are at it again. Frankly, not many believe anything either organization says anymore. I’d like to see the internals for this “poll” and the specific questioning technique used.
I think they are liars.
Apr 4, 2008 - 2:09 pm 9. garrett:Well, yes, but what does it mean? Conservatives, libertarians, liberals and leftists are all deeply dissatisfied with the direction that the country is going. Not to mention that there are significant numbers of people that can fit in two or more camps, depending on the category of issues. Unthoughtful polls like this simply get unuseful results. So what.
Apr 4, 2008 - 2:15 pm 10. venividivici:Can we please just split the country in half and let the morons who want larger government have it? Let them have the communism they are so aching to have. Eventually, they’ll set up a gulag system like the old Soviet Union, kill all the best people as “enemies of the people” and collapse. It’s the oldest story in the book and these idiots keep wanting to repeat it. I, for one, am sick of trying to stop them, but I don’t want to fund their stupid experiments. So long as they keep it on their side of the fence, let them have their “workers paradise”. Sure, in a way, it’s a human rights violation to willingly let people enslave themselves to their government, but it’s ridiculous the amount of energy conservatives and libertarians have to spend to stop these people politically, as well as the amount of despondency experienced by conservatives and libertarians when we simply lack the votes to stop bad legislation, a la the prescription drug entitlement. If that energy could be put into building our economy and civil institutions, the part of the country that doesn’t want anything to do with “big government” would be even more successful at wealth creation than it is now, when it creates the vast majority of the wealth the parasite class uses for its tax and spend schemes. I’m willing to let tens of millions of liberals fight over redistributed scraps from the piddling economic activity an economy run by bureaucrats would generate. Hopefully, they’ll kill each other off quicker than the old Soviets did. Then, also hopefully, that’ll finally be that for the idea of “big government” on this planet.
Apr 4, 2008 - 2:35 pm 11. WR Jonas:I guess if you have the television or radio on and read the newspapers regularly you will be convinced that things have never been worse. That is the job of the media ; to keep you full of doubt and anxiety and question the whole concept of American values . They are the enemy of clear thinking and reasonable people.
Apr 4, 2008 - 3:15 pm 12. Sue:Our television news tells us daily about the price of gasoline. I know what it is , so why do they have to tell me ? But they also tell me what it will become and in that they reveal what it is they wish to achieve. They want to elevate our anger.
I know why the price of gas is so high. Politicians are trying to please the environmentalists and will not allow any steps to increase the supply . Its as simple as that
If Americans ever wake up and discover they are being played for colossal suckers they will kick the lowlife, do nothing Democrats out of office. .
Oh David S., there are simply none so blind as they who WILL NOT SEE, none so deaf as those WHO WILL NOT HEAR! It is the NYT and CBS. If that is not enough for you, then please go elsewhere. Listen to Randi Rhodes. She makes as much sense as you do.
Apr 4, 2008 - 3:27 pm 13. Wanglese:I don’t believe the Poll is in any way accurate.
Why?
81% think it’s going to hell. So a good proportion of those would want to leave to go somewhere better.
I don’t see massive emigration movements.
I see lots of people trying to get IN, but not huge numbers trying to get out.
I see lots of copuntries hoping to destroy the US (and by extension, western society), but no-one offering *anything* better in its place
Apr 4, 2008 - 4:22 pm 14. venividivici:I see lots of copuntries hoping to destroy the US (and by extension, western society), but no-one offering *anything* better in its place
That’s because they don’t want anything better. They want to wallow in the same misery mankind has wallowed in since time immemorial. Real material and social progress unnerves these people.
Apr 4, 2008 - 5:12 pm 15. Ed Wallis:I like venividivici’s solution (2:35pm) to the problem (NOTE: hey venividivici, have you ever considered updating your name to “vidiviciveni”? Ooh la la!!!).
Yet again, divide and conquer has NEVER worked.
Apr 4, 2008 - 5:31 pm 16. Sergio:Hey, that’s great news!
Apr 4, 2008 - 8:09 pm 17. Patrick:If 81% of THEIR READERS –the left of leftists - believe that they are going to hell that’s NOT bad at all - We shall just wish them a successful ride!
But in case that they are not going literally to hell – STILL life is GREAT – as the socialist media is testifying here they DIDN’T succeed convincing 100% their own Marxist clientele … It must be very frustrating to them seeing that NOT even their groupies are buying in their propaganda!
“love it! an objective poll but you can not accept it.”
What makes this poll ‘objective’? The last CBS poll I saw they had taken a skewed-the-the-Dems sample and skewed it even *more* to the Democrats to ‘fix’ it. The NYT has been doing pollaganda and election year hijinx every presidential election year. This goes back at least to 1992 when they spend the whole year trashing the economy to pave the way for Bill Clinton. Then the day after the election, they ‘discovered’ that in fact the economy had been growing for all of 1992.
” Then show me a poll of your own making or choosing that shows these statistics to be wrong!”
Objective facts: We are the strongest nation on earth; we’ve had robust economic growth, amazing productivity growth these past 7 years, and current unemployment is reasonably low; the current situation is not a crisis, there is an unwinding of a speculative bubble in residential housing, as it works itself out, other sectors of the economy etc.
We could do better, but by being fiscally responsible, not by listening to Democrats, for sure. an example:
Apr 4, 2008 - 9:31 pm 18. Patrick:“I know why the price of gas is so high. Politicians are trying to please the environmentalists and will not allow any steps to increase the supply . Its as simple as that”
… this is true. Drill in ANWR and offshore, stop the ethanol subsidies and opposition to nuclear power and refinery building, and we’d have cheaper energy. Democrats are on the 100% wrong side of the energy issue.
“Can we please just split the country in half and let the morons who want larger government have it? ”
Um, no … God solved that problem already when He created Canada.
We should just send the raving loons to join the country that honors them in their coins:
Apr 4, 2008 - 9:34 pm 19. GT:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie
Saltherring - you are SALT and LIGHT! Yea we’ve got problems… liberal socialism is a mental illness. Read Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., M.D. “The Liberal Mind - The Psychological Causes of Political Madness” Dr. Rossiter is an esteemed forensic psychiatrist that puts the scientific screws to the socialist screwballs. It’s a scientific read but he clearly defines why all of the right-minded people feel like we are living in a freaking looney bin with all these libs… because WE ARE!
Apr 4, 2008 - 9:56 pm 20. Nathan:To AJ
“Personally, I’d love to watch Pelosi, Streisand and Michelle Obama spend a year in Africa, Eastern Europe or SE Asia, but they’d never do it, of course.”
I’ve got the frequent flier miles, I’ll get them tickets. One way though. HA!
To GT,
Apr 4, 2008 - 10:18 pm 21. rotwang:Another great read: “Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline”. Old but still relevent (if not more so now then when it was written in ‘96). It always strikes me as funny that the extreme left are the one’s complaining about America’s problems when it’s been demonstrated in many cases that the extreme left’s mindset and ideals have led to many (most?) of the problems they moan about.
OK, I give up. Which one of you guys was the banjo-playing kid in “Deliverance”?
This sort of uncritical, nation-worshiping rah-rah went out with hula-hoops and Studebakers.
And anyone who can seriously invoke the specter of “Marxism” on a political blog in 2008 should begin auditioning immediately for the role of “scary neighborhood crank.”
Thank God you guys are running McCain for President. No matter who wins the election, we will finally establish a “post-Constitutional” America where improvisational morality, correct thinking, wealth equalization and aggressive social experimentation are free to flourish.
My old, gray ponytail gets hard just thinking about it.
Apr 4, 2008 - 10:34 pm 22. Lily S.:Great Post!
Apr 4, 2008 - 10:42 pm 23. M.E.:Lily S.
http://www.myspace.com/zriiforlife
To Saltherring:
You should start the list of problems from the new Saviour of America Obama from Ka-ka-ma and his infernal entourage of Islamofascists, racists, anti-Semites and others “liberal” bacchantes that lead this Country with sweet songs and ecstatic drums directly to Hell.
Apr 5, 2008 - 2:12 am 24. Andrew Ian Dodge:Has about as much credibility as a Guardian/BBC poll in the UK. Both sponsors are schilling for Obama and make no secret of it.
Apr 5, 2008 - 3:45 am 25. RE:Pointing out that there is an equal percentage of those desiring more nanny-statism and a desire for more ‘free stuff’ and those wanting government to just stay out of our lives would have made for a more objective headline.
But one can always count on the New York Times and CBS News to emphasize negativity, miserable lot that they are.
Apr 5, 2008 - 4:34 am 26. Michael Smith:rotwang, you are a looter, plain and simple. I strongly urge you to move to North Korea or Cuba. “Wealth equalization” and “aggressive social experimentation” are in full effect there.
Of course, you won’t do that, because as a looter/parasite, you know there is nothing worth looting there. No, you want an excuse to get your hands on America’s wealth.
Like all looters, you want the unearned and the undeserved — and like all looters, what you hate and fear the most is JUSTICE. Unfotunately for you, what you will take to the grave is the knowledge of your own impotence — the knowledge that without the existence of the men of ability, the men who are, in every sense, your betters, the men you hate the most, without them you’d perish in short order. And you know it.
You hate the very thing that makes your continued existence possible — that’s because, at root, you hate yourself.
Apr 5, 2008 - 4:48 am 27. Perry Birman:I am pro-Bush, in favor of winning against radical Islamic extremism in Iraq and elsewhere, and in favor of drilling wherever we must in order to be more energy self-sufficient. The country is presently leaning against all of those things. So I think the country is headed in the “wrong direction”.
Apr 5, 2008 - 5:22 am 28. venividivici:How is one to interpret that 81% of Americans think that also? What is the “right” direction?
If only rotwang could be preserved in amber as the prototypical example of leftist “argumentation”.
We’ve got “anti-Southern bias”:
OK, I give up. Which one of you guys was the banjo-playing kid in “Deliverance”?
We’ve got “I’m more up-to-date than you-ism”:
This sort of uncritical, nation-worshiping rah-rah went out with hula-hoops and Studebakers.
We’ve got “just because everything we say could have come from one of Marx’s books, don’t call us Marxists-ism” along with “because you said something I don’t agree with you’re beyond the pale-ism”:
And anyone who can seriously invoke the specter of “Marxism” on a political blog in 2008 should begin auditioning immediately for the role of “scary neighborhood crank.”
Finally, we’ve to “we liberals are smarter than the Founding Fathers-ism”. I’m guessing his source for this is also The New York Times:
Thank God you guys are running McCain for President. No matter who wins the election, we will finally establish a “post-Constitutional” America where improvisational morality, correct thinking, wealth equalization and aggressive social experimentation are free to flourish.
Exit question: Given that Constitutional America was established by force of arms, and you old gray ponytail types wouldn’t even charitably be compared to “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”, how do you think you’re going to take anything from me in furtherance of your “wealth equalization” plans?
My “split the country” proposal was submitted in lieu of what would actually happen if your “side” tried to implement your ideology in the entire country (rather than implementing it in the one half of the country we’d give you to screw up), which is a civil war that your side can’t win. Remember that Brutus thought he was doing the noble thing when he killed Caesar and that the Roman populace would rally to his side. Yet, all he did was unleash a power struggle he eventually lost. Your “side” is older and less capable in every way that matters. You couldn’t even organize hippy communes of any substantial size over anything resembling a long-term time horizon and you want to be put in charge of the entire country? I suggest you shut up and live out the last few years of your pathetic life without causing any trouble. Life isn’t the movie “Cocoon”.
My old, gray ponytail gets hard just thinking about it.
I don’t have an old, gray ponytail, but I get hard thinking “If we just bump off all these old coots, we won’t have to pay for their Medicare and Social Security benefits”, which are going to be a major drag on my generation.
Apr 5, 2008 - 7:03 am 29. M.E.:Perry:
there is one only “right” direction: to fight against the Evil. The US fought always against the evils of our time: communism and Nazi-fascism. And now the US fights against the most monstrous synthesis of both – Islamofascism. That is the Historical Mission of the US. They can’t fail. I’m sure.
Apr 5, 2008 - 12:32 pm 30. Bruce:Thank God half-witted fools like Rotwang (good choice)won’t be around much longer. They’ll be using their walkers at the local rest home and someone else will be taking care of their personal hygene.
Apr 5, 2008 - 3:25 pm 31. Ed Wallis:It’s the weekend, so let’s have a little fun…
Rotwang writes, “Thank God you guys are running McCain for President. No matter who wins the election, we will finally establish a “post-Constitutional” America where improvisational morality, correct thinking, wealth equalization and aggressive social experimentation are free to flourish.”
One at a time! Too much fun for the whole family!!
“…we will finally establish a “post-Constitutional” America…
You might just run out of breath on this one, kid, as the Constitution itself has lived longer than a more than number of countries around the world…and has MORE THAN A FEW defenders who will be only too glad to use your hate-America-first posterior to clean the path to those military recruiting centers which your fellow travellers deface.
“…where improvisational morality,…”
OH WOW. Like I’ve never heard of Sodom and Gommorah before. I bet you think your generation invented sex, right?! If you’re lonely tonight, try “girls on farms dot com” to further your degeneracy!
…correct thinking…”
Now, THAT’S a good one! Like I need YOU to tell me - aren’t all the P.C. idiots in Government enough?! - how I MUST think.
“…wealth equalization…”
HEY - half of the NOTHING you earn is certainly destined to reach your comrades…post haste!!!
“…and aggressive social experimentation are free to flourish.”
Do as you wish…just ACCEPT the FULL CONSEQUENCES of your actions (see also “girls on farms” remark above).
JUST ONE REQUEST: When your goat has left your family farm to join the family tree, please don’t ask to have it considered a dependent for tax purposes….
HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND, EVERYONE!
Apr 5, 2008 - 5:05 pm 32. GT:Rotwang - You just keep smokin’ that “medical” marihoochie and playing with your ponytail. When you and your communist, teachers union, ACLU lovin’ mentally ill friends are sitting around Indian style, playing your favorite board game… “We’re smarter than you and we have tenure and we can’t work in the real world so we’re going to teach instead” enjoy yourselves because that’s as close as you’re going to get to running the show. Remember, we’re laughing with you, not at you… really! P.S. Why do you think they call it DOPE? LOL
Apr 5, 2008 - 9:42 pm 33. Dan:This poll is utterly and intentionally faulty, and it is an insulting lie. For some years now, the minute I see “CBS” or “New York Times”, I know I can immediately dismiss whatever is printed below it, because it is probably full of cr–. Both organizations have completely squandered their credibility, which is the only thing any news organization ever really has.
Apr 6, 2008 - 12:38 am 34. GT:This so called poll is just the tip of the iceberg in liberal socialist media propoganda. As Sept. & Oct. roll around leading up to the Nov. election we will be sick and disgusted by how much of this we’ve had to endure. The liberal socialist media, along with Obama, Hillary and Rotwang have a singleness of purpose, they hear the clarion call of “collectivism.”
Apr 6, 2008 - 10:26 am 35. orlandocajun:Their socialist dogma (read rotwang above) is only surpassed by their contempt for individualism and self-sufficiency. Their polytheist religion makes intellectual elites, progressive politicians and socialist journalism the (g)ods that they bow down to. They can’t, for the life of them, understand why there is such resistence by those they deem ignorant of their version of the truth. I’m encouraged that Obama and Hillary are the standard bearers for this philosophy (religion) as we elect a new president. Because the more they gain exposure the more self-evident are the systemic failings of liberal socialist collectivism. Go Barack Hussein, Go Hill & Bill, Go Rotwang… shout your religion from the rooftops ’cause we’re laughing with you not at you… really!
81% of Americans say the country is going to hell and 80 of Americans disapprove of Congress. Is that a coincidence, or is it just me?
Apr 6, 2008 - 2:47 pm 36. Richard Schweitzer:A correlated question should always accompany these polls, with results reported:
How have you reached your conclusions; and if based on information, what has been its principal sources.
Apr 6, 2008 - 7:59 pm 37. Rod Clemson:Rotwang - I used to have a long ponytail. It would even get hard at times. I think I’ve “grown up” some since those “good ol’ days”. I will freely admit that I WAS WRONG. I suspected that this was the case when I got spit on in LA, (I’d just returned from a “dirty litty police action in
Southeast Asia with the good ol’ USMC). But when I listened to John Kerry speak at the University of Oklahoma in 1972 I really started to worry about my liberal positions. Well, the pony tail is a distant memory, (yes I do have a few functioning brain cells), and I’ve awakened from my 40 year fog. Try it, you might like it.
Peace brother
Apr 7, 2008 - 8:19 am 38. kevin:Well the study(and many comments on blogs) seems to show shows that way to many Americans have lobotomized themselves and left thinking to a heavily left-biased anti-American movement in the general media. Most of the ‘arguments’ against Bush, the economy, global warming, you name it that I hear are sound-bite misinformation at best they simply have taken fully to heart as gospel.
Most of it is 1% research into any claim, and 99% trying to remember how to repeat exactly what they hear in a NYT article at lunch for their political ‘argument’ for the day with co-workers(and rarely ever brought up twice). Not to mention they are grooming children in public schools today to take the same approach to any so-called facts or ‘news’ they hear in their adult lives. The scary part is how many people I talk to simply take a point of view over a certain issue with 0 effort and put up 100% resistance to anything other then their chosen view. The Obama zombies are a perfect example, they don’t even have any idea why they like him in the first place.
Apr 7, 2008 - 9:46 am 39. dpw:never in recorded history, have so many with so much felt so bad about so little
Apr 8, 2008 - 11:20 am 40. Amphipolis:81% of Americans say the country is going to hell, and I imagine 81% also say that they don’t like the weather.
Apr 10, 2008 - 1:23 pm 41. Ten:LiarBlogFake, huh? Bookmark that dump, folks, for the next time you want to see what wins in a cagematch between good ‘ole Eastern bloc-style dependency and the sheer political self-delusion it takes to actually pull it off.
That place is where reality conforms to completely unsupported opinion and cites All That Is Free and Good at the same time.
Lest you think we merely jest, remember that the 43% that wants to torch the Constitution in the name of preserving it — for that most noble of all constitutional enumerations, namely an even larger menu of American Socialist options — infests such hives of collectivism as DireBlogCake.
I say split the country. This is finally a house divided against itself.
Apr 14, 2008 - 5:22 pm