The majority of Americans say they feel pessimistic about the country’s future over the next 12 months, according to a new poll.
In the ABC News/Ipsos poll, 55% of respondents held a negative view of the direction of the country — a nearly 20 percentage point increase since May. About 45% of respondents said they are optimistic about the future.
When asked the same question in May, 36% of Americans were pessimistic and 64% were optimistic.
The pessimism spans ideological lines as Americans of all stripes are growing more critical of President Biden.
“The decline in optimism has occurred across the board among Democrats, Republicans and independents,” wrote ABC’s Quinn Scanlan. “Optimism is down about 20 points among Democrats and Republicans and down 26 points among independents.”
The negative view in the country matches the majority of Americans’ surveyed who disapprove of Mr. Biden’s handling of immigration and gun violence, with 61% of Americans with a negative view of the president’s handling of each of those issues.
Mr. Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic also received its worst grade in the ABC News /Ipsos poll since he took office, with 36 of those surveyed disapproving of his handling the response to COVID-19. The share of Americans giving Mr. Biden bad grades on the coronavirus grew 8% since May.
Similarly, Americans are growing uneasy about Mr. Biden’s handling of the economy. The portion of Americans disapproving Mr. Biden’s handling of the economic recovery grew eight percentage points since May to 46%.
The ABC News/ Ipsos poll surveyed 527 adults online on July 23 and 24. The poll was conducted in English and Spanish had a margin of error of five percentage points. The May poll was conducted on April 30 and May 1.
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