Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Commentary by Morton H. Halperin, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations Moderate Public Views Give Officials Great Latitude Policy analysts and politicians generally believe that elections are not won or lost on foreign policy issues any more. Interest groups of one kind or another - economic, ethnic, ideological - may have strong feelings on particular […]
Rising public opposition to the death penalty has been one of the few liberal social trends in recent years. But there is some reason to wonder whether the public’s overwhelming enthusiasm for executing Timothy McVeigh will stall or possibly reverse this development. Every nationwide poll taken has found the vast majority of Americans favoring the […]
Partisan Gap on Missile Defense Opinions on missile defense have remained fairly consistent as the debate has heated up over the past few months. The 51%-38% margin of support for the idea is similar to the results of a survey in February, when a comparable question was asked. In the current poll, nearly one-in-three Americans […]
Introduction and Summary Rising energy costs are having a major impact on how Americans are living their lives, affecting everything from their driving habits to the news stories they follow. More than two-thirds say they have been adjusting their thermostats to cope with soaring utility bills, and half report cutting back on driving to save […]
Taking the first two months in office as a whole, Bush’s coverage has been slightly less positive than his Democratic predecessor’s (22% positive stories for Bush versus 27% for Clinton)4. For both presidents, the bulk of stories were neutral (49% Bush, 44% Clinton). The percentage of negative stories for both presidents was identical (28%). In […]
Religion plays an important role in the personal lives of most Americans. The number of people saying religion is very important to them has gradually increased over the past two decades, after declining sharply between the mid-1960s and late 1970s. Currently, nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) call religion very important. Fully nine-in-ten pray at least […]
For decades, Americans have been split over the question of whether organized religion should take an active role in politics. About half of the public (48%) is willing to see churches “express their views on day-to-day social and political questions.” But a comparable number (46%) feel that churches should keep out of political matters.[1. Given […]
In general, the public is not unduly concerned over the nation’s growing religious diversity. However, certain groups are worried about a rise of secularism. More generally, there is fairly broad dissatisfaction with the way the news media and Hollywood treat religion and religious people. Less than half of Americans (45%) say the news media is […]
Finances Top Family Problem Economic concerns are weighing on the minds of Americans these days. When asked in an open-ended format to name the biggest problem currently facing them and their families, most Americans (62%) cite financial concerns, and the proportion doing so is up significantly from the mid-1990s. In 1994, 56% named financial concerns […]