The majority of Americans viewed President Barack Obama‘s inauguration eight years ago as a nationwide celebration of democracy, but just over a third feel the same way about President-elect Donald Trump, a Gallup poll has found.
The Gallup U.S. Daily Survey conducted Jan. 14-15, 2017 found that only 37 per cent of Americans said Trump’s inauguration festivities made for “a celebration by all Americans of democracy in action,” compared to 55 per cent who felt the same way about the inauguration of the first African-American president in 2009.
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The poll also found the disenchantment of supporters of the losing party to be higher this time around.
Seventy-seven per cent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents view the inauguration as a Trump-focused celebration rather than an inclusive one, compared to the sixty-four per cent of Republicans who felt that way about Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
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But while Trump enters the White House with the lowest approval rating of any new U.S. president in recent memory, historical polls depict Democratic chagrin as being even higher going into President George W. Bush’s inaugurations in 2001 and 2005.
Only 26 per cent and 29 per cent of Americans respectively viewed those inaugurations as non-partisan celebrations, figures driven by the 85 per cent and 86 per cent respectively of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents who viewed the last Republican president’s inaugurations as political celebrations by his supporters.
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Bush was declared the winner of the 2000 presidential election after the U.S. Supreme Court halted a protracted recount of a close race in Florida against Democrat Al Gore.
Still, Trump is expected to draw unprecedented numbers of protesters to the streets of Washington, D.C.
The number of planned protests and rallies this year is far above what has been typical at recent presidential inaugurations, with some 30 permits granted in Washington for anti-Trump rallies.
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That being the case, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the number of Americans who condone inauguration protests is higher than it was when the last Republican president, George W. Bush, was sworn in for his first term in 2001.
Forty-six per cent of Americans now say that it’s appropriate for people to protest during the presidential inaugural ceremonies, compared to only 28 per cent before President Bush’s inauguration. That figure swelled to 38 per cent going into Bush’s second term inauguration in 2005.
The question was not asked prior to Obama’s inaugurations in 2009 and 2013.
— With a file from Reuters
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