# 24% say country headed in right direction **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 6, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145 "2017-10-06T22:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/1 "2017-10-06T22:44:26Z")
[The AP just announced the results of a poll today](https://apnews.com/f7d770542f334a218398b2f9b2ae1102/AP-NORC-Poll:-Just-24-percent-say-US-heading-right-direction). The poll was conducted by the [AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research](http://www.apnorc.org/Pages/default.aspx). > [@](#): > > The decline in optimism about the nation’s trajectory is particularly pronounced among Republicans. In June, 60 percent of Republicans said the country was headed in the right direction; now it’s just 44 percent. > > The broader picture for the president is grim, too. Nearly 70 percent of Americans say Trump isn’t level-headed, and majorities say he’s not honest or a strong leader. More than 60 percent disapprove of how he is handling race relations, foreign policy and immigration, among other issues. > > Overall, 67 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing in office, including about one-third of Republicans. > [@](#): > > The GOP failure on health care has irritated Trump, who promised voters that repealing “Obamacare” would be easy. Americans aren’t happy with his progress on health care either; 68 percent disapprove of his handling of the issue. > > Of all the issues surveyed by the AP-NORC poll, the president performs slightly better on the economy. But even there, 56 percent disapprove of the job he’s doing and just 42 percent say they approve. > > On Friday, the Labor Department announced that the U.S. shed 33,000 jobs in September because of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which closed thousands of businesses in Texas and Florida and forced widespread evacuations. It marked the first monthly hiring drop in nearly seven years. > > Ninety-two percent of Democrats and 69 percent of independents say Trump understands the problems of people like them not very or not at all well. Even among Republicans, only 42 percent say he understands them very well, while 32 percent say he does moderately well. > > The AP-NORC poll of 1,150 adults was conducted Sept. 28-Oct. 2 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. I think the poll results are pretty stark and show that Americans aren’t blind or deaf to what is (and isn’t) happening, yet I’m not optimistic that anything will change, at least not before the 2018 midterm election winners are seated. Frankly, I’m not at all convinced that most Americans have figured out how we got here, so I don’t have a lot of confidence that they will be able to figure out how to get somewhere else on purpose. This seemed to volatile for MPSIMS and too general for Elections and I figured that people are prolly gonna want to cuss and stuff, so I put this in the goddamned motherfucking Pit. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/2 "2017-10-06T22:51:28Z")
He still has 24%? Fuck! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/3 "2017-10-06T23:00:25Z")
We’re headed in a discernible direction? Huh. Who knew!?!? I thought it was more like running around like a chicken with its head cut off. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/4 "2017-10-06T23:09:13Z")
“…Overall, 67 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing in office, including about one-third of Republicans. …” I can see sane Americans disapproving, but the third of Republicans who disaprove are the worlds biggest marks, particularly if they voted for the “reality” tv huckster. Trump’s bridge buyers who fell for a scam that an idiot would have spotted a mile away. The 2/3 of Republicans who apparently approve are a blend of evil, stupid, fearful, racist and deplorable. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/5 "2017-10-06T23:09:32Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We’re headed in a discernible direction? Huh. Who knew!?!? > > I thought it was more like running around like a chicken with its head cut off. The poll didn’t ask what particular direction anyone thinks the country is headed in, only if they think it’s the right one or not. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/6 "2017-10-06T23:10:08Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > He still has 24%? Fuck! My guess would be that the 24% is the actual white-supremacists (whether they own the name or not). These are the folks who will stick with Trump no matter what, because they believe they’ll never again see anyone as openly racist as Trump installed in the White House–he’s their best shot at getting what they want. The 37-39% that’s often talked about as being Trump’s “base” includes an additional group: the people who didn’t particularly respond to the ‘Mexicans are rapists, blacks can’t walk down the street without being shot’ stuff. They were, instead, some combination of the poorly informed (i.e. they genuinely believed Trump to be a “good businessman”), and the one-percenters who don’t care about the Wall and dog-whistles, but only about tax cuts. That 12-to-14% has been sticking with Trump more out of ego-protecting rationalization, then out of any reality-checked assessment of how he’s done since taking office. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/7 "2017-10-06T23:16:18Z")
tbf, it’s not bad for a game show host. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/8 "2017-10-06T23:37:33Z")
Has anyone seen any polling asking people what their estimate would be on the number of Americans who largely agree with their own political persuasions? It appears to me that the myth of the “silent majority” still prevails, otherwise, how could the Troglodyte Right believe that Trump was robbed of popular vote win by skulduggery? If they can believe the Big Lie about their actual numbers, then they can believe anything that follows from that. After all, majority rules! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/9 "2017-10-06T23:49:28Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > He still has 24%? Fuck! That’s actually surprising; I figured his bottom would always be [27 percent](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiWiObcl93WAhVI0YMKHS8TCNsQFggoMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fkfmonkey.blogspot.com%2F2005%2F10%2Flunch-discussions-145-crazification.html&usg=AOvVaw27K9rR94IzANF0iaM1CvPJ). ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/10 "2017-10-07T00:10:33Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The poll didn’t ask what particular direction anyone thinks the country is headed in, only if they think it’s the right one or not. Away from anything Obama ever liked or supported. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/11 "2017-10-07T01:33:38Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > He still has 24%? Fuck! > [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > That’s actually surprising; I figured his bottom would always be [27 percent](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiWiObcl93WAhVI0YMKHS8TCNsQFggoMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fkfmonkey.blogspot.com%2F2005%2F10%2Flunch-discussions-145-crazification.html&usg=AOvVaw27K9rR94IzANF0iaM1CvPJ). Ehh. Margin of error. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/12 "2017-10-07T02:15:22Z")
Well, his bottom is 27% of his body weight, anyway. Usually fat men show mostly in the stomach, but most of his fat goes to his fat ass. Like a woman. This should be pointed out to him. Also, his fat ugly face is starting to show levels of Bannon-style dissipation. Is he downing a quart or more of whiskey a day? I know he says he’s a teetotaler, but he lies about everything. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/13 "2017-10-07T02:28:19Z")
No, maybe not, quite a few _aficianados_ of methedrine don’t drink. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/14 "2017-10-07T03:12:31Z")
ETA: oops. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/15 "2017-10-07T13:16:26Z")
The polls also said Clinton would win the election. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/16 "2017-10-07T14:18:12Z")
Yeah, and scientists all thought we’d have global cooling in the 70s! ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/17 "2017-10-07T14:18:24Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > The polls also said Clinton would win the election. Nationwide polls said she would get more votes nationwide, which she did. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/18 "2017-10-07T20:39:02Z")
When we look at the [long term trend](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html) for this question Trump is doing about average right now. It seems like everyone from the party opposite the president thinks we’re going in the wrong direction, some people in the president’s party think we’re going in the wrong direction, and independents think we’re going in the wrong direction no matter who is president. While this is a low point for the Trump presidency he’s got a way to go to equal the low point of the Obama administration. Some notable data points: October 17, 2009 - 17.0% Right Direction 76.5% Wrong Track October 18, 2013 - 17.4% Right Direction 74.9% Wrong Track June 10, 2009 - 45.8% Right Direction 45.8% Wrong Track The last one is interesting because it is literally the only date in Obama’s term where wrong track wasn’t ahead of right direction in the RCP average. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/19 "2017-10-07T20:44:29Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > When we look at the [long term trend](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html) for this question Trump is doing about average right now. It seems like everyone from the party opposite the president thinks we’re going in the wrong direction, some people in the president’s party think we’re going in the wrong direction, and independents think we’re going in the wrong direction no matter who is president. > > While this is a low point for the Trump presidency he’s got a way to go to equal the low point of the Obama administration. > > Some notable data points: > October 17, 2009 - 17.0% Right Direction 76.5% Wrong Track > October 18, 2013 - 17.4% Right Direction 74.9% Wrong Track > June 10, 2009 - 45.8% Right Direction 45.8% Wrong Track These dates are utterly pointless without the socio-politcal context of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145/20 "2017-10-07T20:49:30Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > The polls also said Clinton would win the election. That happens when you don’t think to factor in massive Russian interference. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-say-country-headed-in-right-direction/798145.md?page=2)