State of the Country – The Direction of the Country – “Despite a strong economy, Americans remain relatively pessimistic in their outlook on the direction of the country. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the public believe things in the country have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track, while about one-third (35%) say things are generally moving in the right direction. Americans are far more likely to believe the country has gone off course in just the last few years than to say this has been happening for a long time. Four in ten (40%) Americans say the country has gotten off on the wrong track recently, while about one-quarter (24%) say the U.S. has been on the wrong track for a long time. Among partisans, views about the direction of the country have flipped since 2016. Today, seven in ten (70%) Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction, while nearly three in ten say that the country has gotten off on the wrong track in the last few years (10%) or has been on the wrong track for a long time (19%). In contrast, in the fall of 2016, only seven percent of Republicans said the U.S. was headed in the right direction, while more than nine in ten Republicans said the country had been on the wrong track for a long time (42%) or had gotten off on the wrong track in just the last few years (49%). Similarly, views among Democrats have shifted recently. Today, only eight percent of Democrats believe the U.S. is headed in the right direction. About nine in ten Democrats say things have gotten off on the wrong track in the last few years (72%) or the U.S. has been on the wrong track for a long time (19%). In 2016, more than four in ten (42%) Democrats said the U.S. was headed in the right direction. Less than six in ten said the country had gotten off on the wrong track in the last few years (21%) or had been off track for a long time (36%)…”