Americans say the U.S. progressed in only four out of 19 policy areas over the past eight years but lost ground on 14, according to a Gallup poll conducted Jan. 2-3, 2017.
Healthcare was the one area in which respondents were divided, with 43 per cent saying the country made progress and an equal percentage saying it regressed in this area under President Barack Obama‘s presidency, with the remaining 16 per cent perceiving a standstill.
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Despite Obama making history as the country’s first black president, 52 per cent of Americans said they thought the state of race relations in the country suffered during his presidency.
On the issue of foreign relations, 49 per cent of Americans say the country’s global standing was tarnished between 2008 and January 2017, with the fight against terrorism (49 per cent), situation in Iraq (47 per cent) and situation in Afghanistan (38 per cent) all drawing substantial negative reviews.
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The situation for LGBT Americans received substantial praise however, with 68 per cent saying the country moved forward in this area and only 16 per cent claiming it fell back.
Twice as many Americans said the United States made progress on energy (46 per cent) than lost ground, while 33 per cent said the last eight years have seen the country move forward on climate change, compared to only 23 per cent who say it took backward steps.
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Overall, the poll suggests that Americans see more progress for their country under Obama than they did under his predecessor George W. Bush. Respondents rated Obama more favourably than they did Bush on eight of the 12 policy areas tracked for both presidents, namely healthcare, climate change, energy, education, immigration and the country’s international standing.
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Results are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,021 national adults, aged 18+, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, conducted Jan. 2-3, 2017. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The economy item was asked of the full sample. All other items were asked of a randomly selected half-sample of between 482 to 539 national adults and have a margin of error of ±5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
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