American public opinion changed in significant ways over the course of Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House, including on issues such as the economy, race relations, and the level of confidence the public has in different aspects or actors in the government. Many of these changes were the […] Read more »
Americans’ Satisfaction Steady or Up, Except on Race Matters
Americans’ satisfaction with both race relations and the situation for blacks and other racial minorities in the U.S. edged down from last year, the only two areas of the 28 Gallup measured to decline significantly over this period. … The biggest positive changes over the past year were increases in […] Read more »
How nostalgia for white Christian America drove so many Americans to vote for Trump
… A yearning for an earlier time, especially prevalent in rural American towns and cities like Mount Airy, helped spur white evangelical Christians to vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. For these voters, the desire for change also could be viewed as a desire to change back, to what they perceive […] Read more »
1990s Oregon campaigns anticipated Trump’s politics of division
Arlene Stein, Rutgers University The white working class surprised many pundits and social scientists by supporting Donald Trump, leading some to describe the election results as a “whitelash.” The fact that the president-elect successfully mobilized this population was far from inevitable. After all, a fair number of Trump supporters once […] Read more »
Record-High 77% of Americans Perceive Nation as Divided
Seventy-seven percent of Americans, a new high, believe the nation is divided on the most important values, while 21% believe it is united and in agreement. … Americans are split about evenly on whether Trump will do more to unite the country (45%) or do more to divide it (49%). […] Read more »
Better or Worse Since the 1950s? Trump and Clinton Supporters at Odds over the Past and Future of the Country
Two weeks before the presidential election, a new national survey finds that supporters of each presidential candidate view cultural changes in America since 1950 very differently. About seven in ten (72 percent) Donald Trump likely voters say American culture and way of life has changed for the worse since the […] Read more »