Before we get comments saying this poll is simply cherry picking by that bad, ‘ol liberal media (or a certain moderate blog that battled 8900 hacking attempts yesterday and brutal seemingly political DoS attacks), here the latest news reported by Fortune magazine: a new poll indicates President-Election Donald Trump has no mandate.
A new poll out today carries bracing news for Republicans eager to interpret the election results as a sweeping mandate for their program.
A plurality of Americans trust Congressional Democrats more than either President-elect Donald Trump or their GOP counterparts on Capitol Hill to develop solutions to the major challenges facing the country, according to the newest installment of the quarterly Allstate/Atlantic Media Heartland Monitor poll.
Similarly, President Obama is enjoying his highest approval ratings in the survey since July 2009, with 56% of respondents rating his job performance positively, compared to 40% who give him a thumbs-down. And a plurality say his administration has increased opportunities for people like them to get ahead—Obama’s highest marks on that score since just after his 2012 reelection.
The results overall present a muddied picture of an electorate feeling ever more encouraged about their personal finances and yet ready, with qualifications, to welcome change in Washington. “One thing for sure we know is this is not a mandate for Trump,” says pollster Bill Cullo, who conducted the survey. “Nor does that mean that Democrats have a clear path either.”
The survey comes as each party marshals evidence from the election results to try to claim majority support for its agenda. Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Tuesday pointed to the Trump ticket’s victory in 30 states and more counties than in any election since Ronald Reagan’s, arguing the incoming administration has a historic mandate. Democrats, meanwhile, note that while they remain locked out of power on the Hill, they gained seats in each chamber; and Hillary Clinton won 2.7 million more votes than Trump nationally, and counting, the widest gap ever for a candidate who lost the electoral college.
The Heartland survey reflects some of the split thinking evident in those competing results. By a margin of 50%-36%, most Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, but that is the most hopeful view they’ve registered in roughly seven years. For the first time since the poll launched—in April 2009, amid the worst of the recession —a majority of respondents now describe their personal financial situation as either excellent or good. That result aligns with macro trends that show consumer confidence, for example, hit a nine-year high in November as the Dow Jones Industrial Average set a new record.
Yet apparently following Trump’s lead, most respondents now back growing the economy through new spending on education, training, infrastructure and research—even if that necessitates raising taxes and running up deficits. The ranks of those who’d rather focus on reducing the deficit have shrunk by half over the last four years, with the survey showing only 12% who want it prioritized over growth, down from 22% around the same time in 2012.
Pollster’s average of polls is in line with other polls showing Trump’s favorable rating is rising, but he’s not coming into office with a mandate:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.