More than half of Americans say the country’s best days are already behind it | CNN Politics
www.cnn.com
In politics today, negativity is a much easier sell than enthusiasm. For the first time in nearly a decade of polling, more than half of Americans say the country’s best days are already behind it. Three-quarters think the country’s political system needs major reforms or a complete overhaul, according to CNN polling conducted by SSRS this summer.

CNN’s poll finds that more than half of political independents are either dissatisfied with or indifferent to both political parties – but different blocs of independents hold notably different attitudes.

And within the parties, people are more vehement in their dislike of the opposition than in their enthusiasm for their own party. The Democratic Party last saw positive ratings from a solid majority of the country in February 2009, while the Republican Party last saw a favorability rating of 55% or higher in February 2005.

It’s been 23 years since Americans gave both parties ratings that were broadly positive at the same time.

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  • crandlecan@mander.xyz
    661·
    3 days ago

    Almost half of Americans are still blissfully unaware of the utter and total shit they’re in…

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
        23·
        3 days ago

        I think throughout most of human history most people have tried really hard to believe “this is fine” regardless of what’s going on and periods of time that we see as having massive unrest involved like 50% of the population openly saying “this sucks” and maybe 20-25% saying “this sucks and I’m willing to do something about it”

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          9·
          3 days ago

          The worst part of that seems to be that usually that 20-25% is made up of the most extreme dullards who don’t understand that people tried to say “this is fine” because those people knew the importance of stability. In the US, the people most likely to “do something about it” are tantamount to Trump’s fucking brownshirts. The people ready to throw it all into the dustbin of history aren’t necessarily the people with the best education or intents. They’re just angry that the bread and circuses don’t satisfy anymore.

          • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
            6·
            3 days ago

            people tried to say “this is fine” because those people knew the importance of stability.

            I saw that dynamic too but I think part of how we got to this point is that we broke the trust of the public by insisting “this is fine” when they could tell it wasn’t, and the insecure condescension we got from a lot of our leaders didn’t help matters

            I will say that there are some people way too eager to burn everything down right now and the crazier things get the more important it is that we all try to speak carefully, but OTOH we also absolutely need to throw some things into history’s dustbin and the longer we wait to do so the worse this is gonna get

    • h4x0r@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      41·
      3 days ago

      I agree these aren’t the best of times, but I’m also not certain there will not be better days. The more people that decide this is it and give up, the more likely the best is behind us.

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
    131·
    3 days ago

    I very honestly think the best days are yet to come. The idea of America when that happens might be radically different than today though.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
      7·
      3 days ago

      I actually agree, I don’t think I’ll live to see those better days because I think we’re still staring down another century or so of dumb shit, but I think our whole species is eventually going to hit a rock bottom, learn some very painful lessons, and come out better for it. Also, I think by that point the idea of nation states might be kind of antiquated.

      • chiocciola@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        39·
        3 days ago

        It’s a good thing your opinion on what to censor and what not to censor means absolutely nothing to anyone.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    61·
    3 days ago

    Haven’t we always been backwards looking though? “Y’know, in my day…”

    I’m sure even at the start there were people going “Man, we were so much better under King George…”

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
      6·
      3 days ago

      It’s CNN we’re dealing with here, so of course the headline is misleading. Most of the article and most of their polling questions are actually about views of the two major parties which are in general basically worse than they ever have been.

    • chiocciola@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      57·
      3 days ago

      Jordy, you’re a frozen in time “progressive” white male genx who has had most of his life handed to him, despite your tough-love-bootstraps attitude. You’re not gonna see 10 years from now 💔 which has made you cold and bitter to the suffering of others. You just think today is another day and that everyone is just overreacting about all this fascism stuff.