Poll: Ahead of July 4, Americans Largely Think U.S. Is Headed Down ‘Wrong Track’

Ahead of the Fourth of July, only 29 percent of likely U.S. voters believe the United States is “heading in the right direction,” a new Rasmussen Reports survey found.

Conversely, 64 percent of voters think the nation is “headed down the wrong track.” Rasmussen Reports conducted the survey with 1,743 likely U.S. voters between June 25-29 with a ± two percent margin of sampling error at the 95 percent confidence level.

“A year ago at this time, 18 percent said the United States was heading in the right direction, while 77 percent said it was on the wrong track,” according to the survey report. 

The findings are similar to a new Convention of States Action/Trafalgar Group survey, which found that seven in ten Americans believe the U.S. is in a state of “cultural and economic decline.”

The survey asked respondents if they believe the U.S. is in a state of “cultural and economic decline” and found that most, 72.5 percent, believe it is. Another 21.6 percent believe it is not, and 5.9 percent remain unsure.

A March 2023 Wall Street Journal-NORC poll additionally found that 38 percent of Americans say patriotism is “very important” to them, down from 61 percent in 2019 and 70 percent in 1998. Thirty-five percent say patriotism is “somewhat important,” and 27 percent say it is “not that important” (16 percent) and “not at all important” (11 percent).

Respondents to that poll were also asked about how they view the United States. Twenty-one percent say the United States “stands above all countries in the world;” 50 percent say it is “one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others;” and 27 percent say, “there are other countries better than the United States.” The percentage of Americans who believe other countries are better than the U.S. rose to 27 percent from 19 percent in 2016.