After the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, six-in-10 Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, and nearly 70 percent of them have negative opinions on the state of the nation today, according to the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
“Wrong track,” “disarray,” “turmoil,” “polarized,” “concerned,” “shambles” and “declining” were some of the answers given by respondents asked to sum up their feelings on the state of America.
“Times are grim,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. “The shutdown is front and center.”
The poll — conducted before a deal was reached Friday to temporarily reopen the government — also finds President Donald Trump continuing to receive poor marks from the public as he begins his third year in office, with a majority disapproving of his job and just a third having confidence in his policies and personal characteristics.
But it also shows how the unstable news environment has had little effect on public attitudes about Trump, with many of his numbers essentially unchanged since the start of his presidency.
“This poll looks a lot more like our December data than in October 2013,” when the GOP’s numbers plummeted during that shutdown more than five years ago, said McInturff.
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SOURCE: Mark Murray
NBC News
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