Near the end of each year, Rasmussen conducts a series of polls measuring how American adults feel about the New Year. I always make a point to read these polls since consumer spending accounts for almost 70% of GDP, and I always want to know what people are thinking about the future. So, I’ll summarize the year-end Rasmussen polls for you today.
These latest Rasmussen polls which are taken in the last week of December show that most Americans are more excited about 2020 than they have been about a new year in a very long time. In an article entitled “Excitement About Year Ahead Is At A New High,“ Rasmussen says
“Americans are more optimistic about the year ahead than they have been in a long time. With a presidential election coming in November, it’s interesting to note that Republicans are a lot more enthusiastic about 2020 than Democrats are.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 72% of American Adults think 2020 will be at a minimum a good year. That’s up dramatically from 54% a year ago and includes 22% who say it will be an excellent year and 20% who predict it will be one of the best years ever.
The previous high was 62% who had a positive outlook following the 2016 election as 2017 dawned. Only 47% felt that way about 2015, and optimism was even lower in the years prior to that.
Looking back, 57% give 2019 positive marks, with 26% who say it’s been a good year, 16% an excellent year and 15% one of the best years ever. This, too, is a new retrospective high. The previous high was 52% at the end of 2018, a number that had been trending up from a low of 30% looking back on 2013. Twenty-two percent (22%) say 2019 was a fair year, and 18% feel it was a poor one.”
Rasmussen says that enthusiasm about the economy started to grow immediately following Donald Trump’s election as president in November 2016 and spiked to a new record of 145.9 in February 2018. By comparison, in President Obama’s final years in office, this index reached a high of 121.5 in January 2015 and was at only 108.1 his last month in the White House.
The point is, economic confidence was never this high under President Obama. Surprised?
Rasmussen breaks the latest poll down even further to show that Republicans (88%) are much more positive about 2020 than Democrats (69%) and those not affiliated with either major party (65%). FYI, men feel slightly better than women do about 2020.
And despite what the mainstream media would like us to believe, the younger the American is, the more optimistic they are about the year ahead. The media likes to portray younger Americans, especially Millennials, as pessimistic and resentful about the future. Not so! And finally, Rasmussen adds:
“While the U.S. economy continues to boom, Democrats are far less convinced that a free-market system is superior to a socialist one and are much more willing to vote for a socialist candidate.” To the contrary, thankfully, Rasmussen found that 69% of “Likely Voters” prefer a free-market system to socialism, with only 12% saying socialism is better. The media won’t report that!
Here’s another recent Rasmussen poll that was a shocker to many. In November, Rasmussen reported that a record high 61% of Americans had a positive view of their personal finances versus only 11% who rated their own finances as poor. That’s a record high and low.
In the same November poll, 35% of Americans said they planned to spend more on the holidays last year than the year before, while only 16% said they expected to spend less. And spend more we did: Mastercard reported that overall holiday spending rose 3.4% from Thanksgiving to Christmas over 2018 levels, and online sales jumped by a record 18.8%.
I could go on with more analysis of the year-end Rasmussen polls, but I think you get the picture: Most Americans are optimistic about the economy and their personal finances – despite what the mainstream media would have us believe!
There is one other Rasmussen poll that I debated whether to include or not… but I can’t help myself: Almost half (49%) of Likely Voters believe taxes will go UP if a Democrat is elected president in 2020, while only 15% said taxes might go down. WOW!!
All this tells me that American voters are a lot smarter than the mainstream media would have us believe. What else is new? Remember, you read it here first.
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