Datapoints

Court TV 04/03/2013 

Seventy-seven percent of registered voters in a recent poll by Fox News said they favored allowing television coverage of the sessions of the Supreme Court, while 18 percent were opposed. In 2010, 69 percent were in favor. Registered Democrats and Republicans in the poll favored the idea by an identical margin (78 percent).

Source: Fox News, March 2013.

States' Choice 03/29/2013 

A mid-March Fox News poll of registered voters shows a small increase in support for legalizing gay marriage. In the new poll, 49 percent of respondents were in favor and 46 percent opposed. In February, registered voters were split evenly, 46 to 46 percent. Other recent polls show the idea has near majority or majority support. Still, there are sharp partisan differences, with 65 percent of Democrats and only 31 percent of Republicans in the new poll favoring legalization. In the poll, as in several others, respondents favored letting each state decide whether same-sex couples can wed, with 53 percent supporting and 45 percent opposing that approach.

Source: Fox News, March 2013.

Immigration Update 03/27/2013 

With immigration on the front burner on Capitol Hill, a recent poll from the Public Religion Research Institute provides a wealth of new data on what Americans want in terms of reform. The poll confirms what other recent polls have shown: growing support for a path to citizenship. In the poll, 63 percent of respondents said the immigration system should “allow [immigrants who are currently living in the U.S.] a way to become citizens provided they meet certain requirements,” while 14 percent wanted to “allow them to become permanent legal residents, but not citizens.” Twenty-one percent wanted to identify and deport them. A majority of Republicans (53 percent), Independents (64 percent), and Democrats (71 percent) favored a path to citizenship.

Source: Public Religion Research Institute, January-February 2012.

A Better Life 03/25/2013 

In a Gallup poll last fall of fifth through twelfth graders, 95 percent of respondents said it was likely that they would have a better life than their parents. The preface to the question told young people that “In America, each generation has tried to have a better life than their parents, with a better living standard, better homes, a better education, and so on.” Only 5 percent said this was unlikely. In the poll, young nonwhites were more optimistic about their prospects than young whites. In a December Gallup/USA Today poll, 49 percent of adults said that it was likely that today’s youth would have a better life than they have had, but 50 percent said this was unlikely.

Source: The Gallup Organization, September–October 2012.

Diversity within Parties 03/22/2013 

A recent Gallup compilation that explores the demographic makeup of political parties shows that Republican self-identifiers are overwhelmingly white (89 percent). Democrats remain a majority white party too (60 percent), but the party is more diverse, as 22 percent of self-identifying Democrats are black, 13 percent are Hispanic, and 2 percent are Asian. Only 2 percent of Republican self-identifiers are black, 6 percent are Hispanic, and 1 percent are Asian. The racial and ethnic makeup of the Republican Party in the new compilation is very similar to what it was in 2008. The Democratic Party, however, now has more black and Hispanic members.

Source: The Gallup Organization, January–December 2012.

Obama’s Liberalism 03/20/2013 

In a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, 32 percent of respondents described President Obama as very liberal, 21 percent described him as somewhat liberal, 31 percent described him as moderate, and 9 percent described him as either somewhat or very conservative. The view that the president is liberal has inched up since January 2009, when 27 percent of respondents described him as very liberal and another 22 percent as somewhat so. In another question in the poll, people were relatively split about whether they agreed or disagreed with most of what Obama is proposing to do, 45 to 46 percent, respectively.

Source: NBC News/Wall Street Journal, February 2013.

Favorable Trade 03/18/2013 

When asked by Gallup about what foreign trade means for the United States, 57 percent of respondents said it represents an opportunity for growth through American exports, while 35 percent (one of the lowest responses recorded since the question was first asked a decade ago) said it represents a threat to the economy from foreign imports. People with higher levels of formal education were more positive about trade than those with less education. Sixty-nine percent of those with post-graduate education said trade is an opportunity, compared to 49 percent of those with a high school education or less.

Source: The Gallup Organization, February 2013.

Being Number 1 03/15/2013 

In a recent poll from Gallup, 62 percent of respondents said it is important for the United States to be number one in the world militarily, and 37 percent said it is not that important “as long as the United States is among the leading powers.” Gallup has asked the question five times since 1993, and each time a solid majority has responded that being number one is important. In the new poll, Democrats and Republicans differed:  80 percent of Republicans thought it is important to be number one, while only 48 percent of Democrats did.

Source: The Gallup Organization, February 2013.

High Job Satisfaction 03/13/2013 

For years, Gallup’s polling has shown that people who are employed express very high levels of satisfaction with their jobs. Gallup’s 2012 poll was no exception; 47 percent of those working full- or part-time said they were completely satisfied with their jobs, and another 42 percent were somewhat satisfied. Fox News posed the question differently in its late-February poll by asking people whether they were fed up with their jobs. Only 11 percent of respondents said they were. In 2005, 11 percent gave that response, and in 2010, 9 percent did. As points of comparison, 84 percent of respondents to the new Fox News poll were fed up with high gas prices, and 81 percent were fed up with the growing federal budget deficit.

Note: Sample is registered voters.
Source: Fox News, February 2013.

NRA Popularity 03/11/2013 

In a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent of respondents had positive feelings about the National Rifle Association and 34 percent had negative ones. In January the responses were almost identical, 41 and 34 percent, respectively. The latest results mark the highest positive rating for the NRA since the question was first asked in 1995. That year, 28 percent of respondents had a positive view of the organization, and 45 percent had a negative one. In the poll, the Democratic Party led the Republican Party (34 to 19 percent) as the party that would do a better job in reducing gun violence.

Source: NBC News/Wall Street Journal, February 2013.