Vi är på fel väg, säger 8 av 10 amerikaner

"81% in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on the Wrong Track" (NYT)

Tja, vad var det jag sa skulle man vilja säga. Världen har väl insett det ganska länge nu, men bättre sent än aldrig. Nu gäller det bara att ta sig upp ur det dike Bush kört ned landet i.

"Although the public mood has been darkening since the early days of the war in Iraq, it has taken a new turn for the worse in the last few months, as the economy has seemed to slip into recession. There is now nearly a national consensus that the country faces significant problems." 
(New York Times, 4 april 2008)

68 procent av de tillfrågade säger att de har det sämre idag än för fem år sedan och endast 4 procent säger att de har det bättre idag.

"The dissatisfaction is especially striking because public opinion usually hits its low point only in the months and years after an economic downturn, not at the beginning of one."

Ett intressant resultat i opnionsundersökningen är att många amerikaner är positva till högre skatter på de rika och ökad roll för regeringens, vilket talar för att tendenser som går tvärsemot Bush och även emot John McCain växer i styrka.

"Democrats have asserted recently that the lack of wage growth has made people more open to government intervention in the economy than in the past, and the poll found mixed results on this score.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they would support raising taxes on households making more than $250,000 to pay for tax cuts or government programs for people making less than that amount. Only 38 percent called it a bad idea. Both Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidates, have made proposals along these lines.

More broadly, 43 percent of those surveyed said they would prefer a larger government that provided more services, which is tied for the highest such number since The Times and CBS News began asking the question in 1991. But an identical 43 percent said they wanted a smaller government that provided fewer services."

Det bådar gott för demokraterna i höstens val. Kanske ska den republikanska kräftgången brytas till slut.

Hans Sandberg