Americans’ ratings of the job being done by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are down significantly from last year, from 60% saying it is doing an “excellent” or “good” job to 50%. None of the other eight government agencies measured in both years showed a decline. CONT. Jeffrey M. […] Read more »
How Did Obama Lose American Voters?
In December 2012, 56 percent of Americans approved of President Obama’s leadership. About 40 percent disapproved. Today, those numbers are almost precisely reversed, a fact that Democrats were made keenly aware of in the fall campaign and in the midterm elections. … So what happened? CONT. John Guida, New York […] Read more »
Public Perceptions of Privacy and Security in the Post-Snowden Era
Privacy evokes a constellation of concepts for Americans—some of them tied to traditional notions of civil liberties and some of them driven by concerns about the surveillance of digital communications and the coming era of “big data.” While Americans’ associations with the topic of privacy are varied, the majority of […] Read more »
How sensationalist TV stories on terrorism make Americans more hawkish
… Political and media observers, particularly on the left, worry that media coverage of the Islamic State is terrifying Americans and persuading them to support foreign policies and candidates that they would otherwise not support. Political science suggests that their fears are warranted. My own research – conducted in the […] Read more »
Beyond the Election: Americans’ Priorities for Their Elected Representatives
Much of the focus of pollsters and public opinion experts this election season is on the question of who is going to win control of the House and the Senate. Who is going to win is important, but a more lasting concern is what the public thinks the House and […] Read more »
More Americans Oppose Edward Snowden’s Actions Than Support Them
More Americans oppose Edward Snowden’s decision to flee the U.S. with thousands of stolen documents and reveal confidential details about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs than those who support his actions, according to a new NBC News poll. … Yet, the nation’s opinion of the former government contractor turned world’s […] Read more »