A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll reveals that nearly two-thirds of American voters are dissatisfied with this country's current progress.
For the survey — which chronicled the responses of 1,000 registered voters over a recent five-day stretch (Dec. 7-11) — 65% of respondents earnestly believe that America isn't headed in the right direction.
That's a notable change from last December, when only 57% of survey-takers were outwardly pessimistic about the nation's future.
The negative vibes aren't exclusive to the Democrats currently carrying the House, Senate, and White House — at least until January.
At that time, the Republicans will take control of the House chamber.
The majority of U.S. citizens conveyed minimal or even waning confidence in either political party putting America back on the right track, when partaking in a word-association exercise.
Asked which word best encapsulated their outlook for the new year, 24% chose "worried," 18% selected "exhausted," and 11% went with a more ominous-sounding "fearful."
On the flip side, 39% of respondents chose "hopeful," and 5% chose "enthusiastic."
From an issues perspective, one topic dominated the discussion with survey-takers, when asked to identify their greatest worry with Republicans taking over the House, and being in a position to control President Joe Biden's various spending bills: High inflation and the economy, which collected 35% of the votes.
"My power bill is about $600 a month; that used to be half of that," Janet Brown, a California-based Republican who works as a mortgage broker, told USATODAY. "Meat's way up; chicken's up; everything's up, up, up.
"If you're on fixed income, you know, I just don't know what some people do," lamented Brown.
The vague issue of "threat to democracy" ranked second (12%), and immigration slotted third (10%) in the survey.
In seventh place, 5% of the respondents expressed a main interest over detailed investigations covering President Biden, the White House administration, and Biden's son, Hunter, specifically his business relationships with Ukraine and China while his father was vice president to President Barack Obama.
Peter Grant, a Democrat voter in the survey who owns a small marine business in Waldoboro, Maine, said, "We're in for some tumultuous times. Things are not good in this country right now in a lot of ways."
The margin-of-error for the USA TODAY/Suffolk survey was 3.1 percentage points.
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