Poll: 70 Percent of U.S. Angry at Political Establishment

The overwhelming majority of Americans said that they remain angry at the political establishment, according to a poll released Sunday.

Seventy percent of Americans said they feel mad “because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington.”

Forty-three percent of Americans said that statement describes them “very well.”

Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the poll with GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies, said, “Four years ago, we uncovered a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system. Four years later, with a very different political leader in place, that anger remains at the same level.”

The poll found a similar level of discontent in October 2015, when then-candidate Donald Trump started rising to prominence.

Republicans said they felt less angry now than four years ago, and Democrats said they have become more frustrated with the political system.

Four years ago, 39 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Democrats reported they were very frustrated with the political establishment. Now, 29 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of Democrats remain very frustrated with the entrenched political establishment.

“The question that decides the 2020 election may no longer be ‘are you better or worse off than you were four years ago?’ but instead ‘are you as angry as you were four years ago?’” said Horwitt. “And if that’s the question, the answer is a deafening yes.”

Roughly half of Americans, or 52 percent, say they believe the political system is being shaken up. Twenty percent believe in that sentiment “very strongly.”

The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll included 1,000 adults and was conducted between August 10 to 14, 2019, with more than half reached by cell phone compared to landline phones, and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage. points.