A poll released Sunday by ABC News/Ipsos found that while Americans believe unity is low, the country is more optimistic than it has been in nearly 15 years.
The poll concluded that 64% of Americans feel optimistic about the direction of the country in the next 12 months, whereas 36% are pessimistic. The poll surveyed 513 U.S. adults from April 30 to May 1, 2021, and carries a 4.7 point margin of sampling error with a 95% confidence level.
Political attitudes, rather than coronavirus comeback fears, seem to be the “largest driver of pessimism,” as 60% of Republican respondents said they are pessimistic, the poll found.
64% of Americans are optimistic about the direction of the country in new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. The last time the country has come close to this level of optimism about the coming year was in December 2006. https://t.co/ZVrhVZ1GnJ
— ABC News (@ABC) May 3, 2021
23% of respondents said America has become more united since President Joe Biden took office in January. However, of the 23% who believe the country is more united now, the poll claimed that 87% directly credit Biden. Of the remaining respondents who believed the country is more united, 3% credited congressional Republicans while 10% credited both parties. (RELATED: Joe Biden’s Below Average Approval Ratings Caused By ‘Radical Left-Wing’ Legislation, Trump Pollster Says)
28% said the country’s divisions have gotten deeper over the first 100 days of the Biden administration, the poll found. About 60% of such respondents believed Biden was primarily responsible, 6% blamed Republicans, and 34% faulted both parties. Nearly two-thirds of Republican respondents (65%) believe the country is more divided, compared to only 5% of Democratic respondents.
Respondents were also asked if “Joe Biden is doing too much, too little, or about the right amount to compromise with the Republican leaders in Congress on important issues,” Ipsos noted. The poll found a majority of Americans (51%) said Biden makes the right amount of compromise with Republicans. Only 9% of respondents believe Biden compromises too much, and 39% think the president compromises too little. When this question was posed about Republican leaders in Congress, two-thirds of respondents believed Republicans were compromising too little, 22% the right amount, and 10% too much.