Economically Disillusioned, Politically Disaffected

In a recent NBC-WSJ poll, conducted April 23-27, 54% of Americans agreed and 43% disagreed with the following statement: “Because of the widening gap between the incomes of the wealthy and everyone else, America is no longer a country where everyone, regardless of their background, has an opportunity to get ahead and move up to a better standard of living.”

What is especially important about this data is what it means in a political context. Of course, this rhetoric has been growing and shaping the debate for most of Obama’s presidency and even before it.

But importantly, the NBC-WSJ data suggests that for a majority of Americans economic inequity is now seen as a threat to a central premise of the American Dream – that in America everyone has the opportunity to succeed. CONT.

Micah Roberts, Public Opinion Strategies

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