The People Are Starting to Worry

A new survey reported at CBS yesterday shows that Americans are not all that excited about the way things are going, you might say.

(CBS) Assessments of the current state of the nation are grim as Americans have begun to choose who will vie to be the country’s next president. 75% of Americans think the country is off on the wrong track - matching the highest number ever recorded in the CBS News/New York Times Poll - and approval of President Bush remains low.

Concern about the direction of the country is accompanied by growing alarm about the condition of the economy - now the country’s most important problem. Perceptions of the condition of the national economy continue to drop, and most Americans think the worst is yet to come.

Three in four Americans think the country is off on the wrong track, matching the highest number recorded in the twenty-five years since CBS News began asking the question. Only 19% say it is headed in the right direction, matching the all-time low reached last June.

Worries about the direction of the country coincide with a low job approval rating for the president. 29% of Americans approve of the way President Bush is handling his job as president. Approval has hovered around 30% for the past year. Poll: Americans Think U.S. On Wrong Track

I understand that not all of this concern means that people agree with me. Somebody who thinks America is becoming too tolerant of differences on sex and gender dimensions, for instance, might vote with me, saying that the country's going to hell in a handbasket. Those who think we don't torture nearly enough and need to take away more of citizens' Constitutional rights, those who think we need to invade more random Middle Eastern countries, those who think the rich aren't rich enough and there aren't enough poor people, will be included in these pessimistic numbers. But I think the Bush approval rating indicates that it's not that.

Another tidbit or two...

For the first time in over two years the economy and jobs is the most important problem facing the country today - edging out the war in Iraq. 23% name it - up eleven points in just one month.

61% say the condition of the economy is bad - including nearly one in five that say it is in very bad shape. 38% describe the economy as good - though only 3% say it is very good. In January 2007 a majority of Americans said the economy was at least in fairly good condition.

Pessimism about the economy’s future is on the rise. 62%, the highest percentage since 1990, think the economy is getting worse, not better.
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Nearly six in 10 Americans say the war in Iraq is going badly - including 30% who say it is going very badly - while another 38% say it is going at least somewhat well. These numbers have changed little since last month, though they are an improvement from a year ago.

Meanwhile, public opinion on the effectiveness of the troop surge that began last spring continues to improve. 40% now say it has made the situation better there, a number that has increased steadily since July.

Looking to the future of U.S. troop commitment in Iraq, half of all Americans want most U.S. troops out of Iraq within the next year, and only about one in five is willing to see large numbers of American troops remain in Iraq for longer than two years.

Looking back, 58% of Americans believe the U.S. made the wrong decision going to war in Iraq.

The question then is how to turn all this around. Of course there is an election this year, but can people hold their heads up high enough to see what's going on? Can they stand tall enough to pull the country up? Of course watching these catastrophic years makes a cynic out of a guy, but I retain quite a lot of hope, actually, that people will come to their senses.