In terms of “the way things have been going in politics over the last few years on topics that matter” to them, two-thirds of Americans (67%) feel that their side has been losing more frequently than it has been winning. Only 29% of people believe they consistently win more elections than they fail on the political issues that are important to them.
From 59% to 67% today, the percentage of Americans who feel they are losing more often than winning has climbed by eight percentage points since 2016.
In comparison to early 2016, when significantly more men (62%) than women (57%) believed that their political side was losing, women are now more likely than men to say that they are losing overall (72% vs. 63%).
Partisan perspectives have also changed since the 2016 election: from 49% two years ago to 78% today, Democrats and Democratic leaners feel they lose more often than they win. Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are roughly evenly divided (53% think losing occurs more frequently, and 44% say winning). Republicans thought they were losing in 2016 on the topics that most to them, according to 75%.
Republican Party leaders are less likely than GOP identifiers to believe their side has been winning more often than losing (51% vs. 36%) in the current study. There were no notable distinctions between their beliefs two years ago.
Democrats report that they lose elections more often than they win, with 78% of those who identify with the party and 78% of those who lean Democratic agreeing. In 2016, leaners (43%) reported their team was winning more frequently than Democratic identifiers (50%) did.
How well-defined are the country’s problems being addressed?
Most Americans—54%—think that most of the significant challenges facing the nation today are complicated and lack obvious solutions, while only 44% say that obvious solutions exist. The general public’s opinion hasn’t altered much in recent years, but there have been changes in how conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats see the nation’s issues.
In the past, Republicans and Republicans with conservative leanings were more likely to believe that there were clear solutions to the majority of the significant national problems than Democrats, moderates, or liberals in the GOP coalition. Liberal Democrats and Democratic leaners are more likely to feel answers are obvious than members of other groups.
The majority of the nation’s major problems, according to 47% of conservative Republicans and 35% of liberal Democrats last year, had apparent solutions.
Today, 43% of conservative Republicans and 50% of liberal Democrats agree. Less ideological parties’ opinions have not changed over the past three years inside either party.
The public’s willingness to pay the taxes required to provide the services they anticipate from the government is currently evenly split among Americans (51%) and whether or not they expect more from the government than they are prepared to pay for (46%). Americans were marginally more inclined to claim (52%) that the public typically demands more than it is willing to pay for than they were to claim (50%) that the public was willing to pay for expected services in 2015.