Concerns about the economy, the pandemic and personal safety are weighing heavily on Americans as the country prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Almost seven in 10 Americans (69%) say things are going “pretty badly” or “very badly” in the U.S., according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS released on Friday, which is up from the 60% who felt that way in March. (This is still lower than the pandemic-era high of 77% just before President Joe Biden took office in January.)
And 74% say that they are at least somewhat angry about the way things are going in the country, with the coronavirus and the economy cited by most respondents as the most important issues facing the nation.
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This is even more pessimistic than the RealClearPolitics average of polls measuring the direction of the country, where 61% say America is on the wrong track.
The CNN poll was conducted from Aug. 3 through Sept. 7 — as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan and U.S. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations spiked — among a random national sample of 2,119 adults who were originally contacted by mail, and then questioned by phone or over email. The responses suggest a growing pessimism about the future as the pandemic has continued to take its toll on American lives and livelihoods. Some 62% of respondents say that economic conditions in the U.S. are “poor,” which is up from about 45% in April, and almost as high as the pandemic-era high of 65% in May 2020.
And 77% of Americans say that they are worried about the state of the economy in their own communities, in particular, which is up from 58% who felt that way in the summer of 2020. Republicans are largely responsible for that surge, with 85% of them sharing concern about their local economies, which is up from 28% at this time last year.
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What’s more, 57% of Americans now say that they are worried about the risk of crime in their communities, which is up from 37% late last summer.
When Americans were asked to name the biggest economic problem facing their families in their own words, most cited expenses or cost of living (43%), along with inflation and rising costs (21%). One in four also described income or employment concerns, with 12% saying that their wages, or “not earning enough,” are troubling their families.
CNN’s poll is the latest bleak survey for American optimism. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday found that almost half of Americans (46%) say 9/11 changed the U.S. for the worse, and 50% believe that the coronavirus pandemic will also make the country worse in the long run. And a USA TODAY/Suffolk University phone poll of 1,000 registered voters found that most respondents (35%) say the COVID-19 pandemic is a more dangerous challenge to the country than the 2001 terrorist attacks (27%), followed by the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, mass shootings and climate change, which were all tied with 10% of the vote.
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Biden’s approval rating also took a hit in CNN’s report — which critics such as former President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Kellyanne Conway seized upon on Twitter. While approval for how he’s handling his job as president stands at 52%, which is just a slight dip from the 53% approval he had in April, the disapproval over his handling of the economy and the pandemic are both up since the spring.
Biden is ramping up his pandemic response with a six-prong strategy to fight the virus and get more Americans vaccinated, however. He rolled out sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates for millions of U.S. workers on Thursday, which will require businesses with 100 or more workers to ensure their employees are either vaccinated or show a negative test result once a week. He warned that his “patience is wearing thin” for the unvaccinated, and that the nation has a “tough stretch” ahead of it.
“If we raise our vaccination rate, protect ourselves and others with masking and expanded testing, and identify people who are infected, we can and we will turn the tide on COVID-19,” Biden said on Thursday, as the daily coronavirus death toll in the U.S. hit a six-month high.
“It will take a lot of hard work, and it’s going to take some time,” he added.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
