Yet again, a doggedly optimistic American public is hopeful that next year will be better the current one, which people have described over and over as “meh,” “less than glowing,” and something “they would rather forget,” according to the Associated Press’s reporting of its regular year-in-review polling.
Eighty percent of those surveyed said the country didn’t improve in 2016, which was marked by one of the most contentious elections in U.S. history. Only 18 percent said the nation’s circumstances got better in the last 12 months, while 47 percent said they were unchanged, and 33 percent said they got worse.
But 55 percent said 2017 will be a better year than 2016, compared to just 19 percent who say it will be worse.
The trend in attitudes is familiar. The leads of the previous three years’ stories were, in reverse chronological order:
At least a plurality of Americans expected the following year to be better than the present one during that time: 43 percent in 2015, compared to 17 percent who said it would be worse; 48 percent and 11 percent in 2014; and 49 percent and 14 percent in 2013.
But in this same stretch, just 13 percent said 2016 was better than 2015, 10 percent said 2015 was better than 2014, and 16 percent said 2014 was better than 2013. Additionally, only 20 percent said 2013 was better than 2012.
The headline the story the year before that one? “Americans look back at 2011 with a shudder, greet 2012 with open arms.” Just 13 percent of the country said 2011 was a good year for the country, compared to 54 percent who said it was bad. Still, 62 percent said they were optimistic 2012 would bring bigger and better things.
The poll skipped a year—in 2009, amid the throes of the financial crisis, 26 percent said it had been a good 12 months for the United States, and a whopping 73 percent said it was bad.
In the AP’s 2016 story, a 62-year-old elementary school teacher from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Flynn, perhaps summed it up best. “I’m hoping 2017 will be better. You’ve got to be optimistic, and I’m going to try.”
