Donald Trump’s election victory was a resounding win for Republicans, but according to a new post-election survey from the Pew Research Center, Trump’s policies and plans are also aligned with most Americans’ vision regarding the future direction of the country, the latest indication yet that Democrats are out of touch and face an uphill battle connecting with today's voters.
Meanwhile, a shrinking percentage of Americans now say the Democratic Party represents them, leaving Democrat-aligned adults less optimistic about the future of their party than at any point in the last eight years.
Pew’s survey discovered that half (49 percent) of Democrats now describe themselves as “pessimistic” about their party’s future. That’s even worse than it was in 2016, when Pew reported that 38 percent reported feeling this way in the wake of Trump’s shocking presidential win over Hillary Clinton.
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| Democrats’ optimism about their party’s future plummets while Republican optimism grows. |
This pessimism is especially pronounced among younger Democratic voters, as 55 percent of Democrats under age 50 attributed a negative view of the party’s future, compared to 39 percent of those over 50. Those who identified as liberal Democrats also expressed more pessimism than those who identified as conservative or moderate Democrats (52 percent vs. 46 percent).
It should come as no surprise that Republicans, on the other hand, are feeling historically optimistic. Among Americans who identified as Republican, 86 percent reported feeling optimistic about the GOP’s future, a climb of more than 20 percent from the 65 percent of Republican-aligned adults who said the same two years ago, and the highest percentage recorded by Pew—even higher than in 2016, when 79 percent said they felt optimistic following Trump’s first election victory.
Americans who identified as conservative Republicans are especially bullish about their party’s future: 92 percent in that group reported feeling optimistic, compared with 78 percent who identified as moderate or liberal Republicans.
Taken together, this 35-percent gap in positive and negative sentiment between Republicans and Democrats is wider than after any recent election, according to Pew.
Overall, half (50 percent) of U.S. adults now believe that the Republican Party represents the interests of “people like them,” the highest percentage since 2016 and seven percentage points higher than the 43 percent who said the same about the Democratic Party. Compared with previous Pew analyses, Americans’ satisfaction with the Republican Party currently stands 11 points higher than it did just a year ago. By contrast, the 43 percent of Americans today who said the Democratic Party represents them reveals a steadying decline from 2020’s 47 percent and 2016’s 51 percent.
More than half of Americans (53 percent) said they approve of Trump’s “policies and plans for the future,” and 59 percent said they’re at least somewhat confident in his ability to make good decisions about economic policy. More than half also think he’d be effective at handling law enforcement and criminal justice issues (54 percent), immigration policy (53 percent) and foreign policy (53 percent).
Americans remain skeptical when it comes to Trump’s personal traits, however, as fewer than half consider Trump to be someone who cares about the needs of ordinary people (45 percent), or think he’s honest (42 percent), even-tempered (37 percent) or a good role model (34 percent). Fewer also expressed confidence in Trump’s ability to make good decisions on abortion policy (45 percent) or to bring the country closer together (41 percent).
And despite Republicans’ overwhelmingly positive outlook regarding the country’s direction, only 22 percent of all Americans said they’re excited about Trump’s win, and only a little more than a quarter (28 percent) described themselves as “relieved.” Meanwhile, a third of Americans (33 percent) said they were disappointed and an additional third expressed surprise that he won. Another 15 percent described themselves as “angry.”
Pew’s findings were based on a survey of approximately 10,000 U.S. adults and was conducted between November 12-17. Respondents were drawn from the nonpartisan think tank’s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative list of randomly selected U.S. adults.
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Stagwell has launched a bipartisan risk and reputation unit to counsel clients on emerging, policy, political and social issues.
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