I have to admit this survey bothers me just a bit. This Rasmussen Poll was taken on January 13th and 14th of 1,000 likely nationwide voters (with a margin of error of 3 points), and it showed that a plurality of Americans (46%) believed the best days of this country are behind us. Meanwhile, 12 points less (34%) said our best days are ahead of us -- and 20% didn't know what to think.Maybe I'm just an optimist, but I believe wholeheartedly that our best days are ahead of us. We are a freer country, and more equal under the law, than at any other time in our history. While we have not completely solved our problems with racism, homophobia, and misogyny, we have made good progress in all three areas. In addition, it now looks like we may finally be getting ready to abandon marijuana prohibition (which never made any sense).
I suspect this negative attitude is based purely on economics. We have just had the most serious recession since the Great Depression, and ordinary Americans are still struggling to recover from it. This is largely due to the Republicans forcing an austerity on the economy (exactly the wrong cure for any recession), and their refusal to institute any serious job creation plans (which helped bring the country out of the Great Depression).
However, I do believe the voters of this country are starting to realize the Republican economic policies are wrong, and they will be voting for change in the next few years. And once we return to a sane economic policy and get the economy moving again, we can finish the job of making sure all citizens are equal under the law -- and make this country stronger and better than it has ever been.
The best thing I can say about the chart above is that those numbers are at least better than when Rasmussen asked this same question in October of 2013. At that time, more than half of the respondents (52%) said our best days were behind us. Maybe that means people are starting to wake up and realize the Republicans policies are the problem -- and see a brighter future once we deal with that. The October 2013 numbers are reflected in the chart below.
