Fifty-six percent of Americans now believe the country’s economic and political systems are stacked against them — the highest number in 22 years, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
Roughly a third of Americans have steadily felt this way since the previous high in July 1992, but the economic woes under former President George W. Bush and President Obama caused a steady increase in pessimism. Fifty-eight percent of Democrats and 51 percent of Republicans now believe the system is stacked against them.
The majority holds regardless of race or job status: 55 percent of whites, 60 percent of blacks and 53 percent of Hispanics feel this way, as well as majorities among blue-collar workers, white-collar workers and retirees.
Pressure is now on the newly-elected Congress, as well as President Obama in his final two years, to do what it can to ease the tensions among the American people.
The same poll found that 56 percent of Americans think Congress should take the lead in setting policy for the country, compared to 33 percent who think this duty to lead is on Obama. Forty percent believe the election won’t make a difference in how lawmakers “work together to deal with problems” the U.S. is facing.
The WSJ/NBC poll of 1,000 adults was conducted via telephone Nov. 14-17, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
