Lauran Neergaard, Hannah Fingerhut and Marion Renault | the Associated Press

March 11, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus, highlighting the division between heartache and hope as the country itches to get back to normal a year into the pandemic.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research illustrates how the stage is set for a two-tiered recovery. The public’s worry about the virus has dropped to its lowest point since the fall, before the holidays brought skyrocketing cases into the new year.

But people still in mourning express frustration at the continued struggle to stay safe.

“We didn’t have a chance to grieve. It’s almost like it happened yesterday for us. It’s still fresh,” said Nettie Parks of Volusia County, Florida, whose only brother died of COVID-19 last April. Because of travel restrictions, Parks and her five sisters have yet to hold a memorial.

Parks, 60, said she retired from her customer service job last year in part because of worry about workplace exposure, and now she is watching with dread as more states and cities relax health rules.

Only about 3 in 10 Americans are very worried about themselves or a family member being infected with the virus, down from about 4 in 10 in recent months. Still, a majority are at least somewhat worried.

“They’re letting their guard down and they shouldn’t,” Parks said. “People are going to have to realize this thing is not going anywhere. It’s not over.”

COVID-19’s toll is staggering, more than 527,000 dead in the U.S. alone, and counting.

But “it’s hard to conceptualize the true danger if you don’t know it personally,” said Dr. K. Luan Phan, psychiatry chief at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.

For those who lost a loved one, “that fear is most salient in them. They’re going to be a lot more cautious as businesses reopen and as schools start back,” Phan said.

And without that first-hand experience, even people who heeded health officials’ pleas to stay masked and keep their distance are succumbing to pandemic fatigue because “fears tend to habituate,” he said.

Communities of color were hardest hit by the coronavirus. The AP-NORC poll found about 30% of African Americans, like Parks, and Hispanics know a relative or close friend who died from the virus, compared with 15% of white people.

That translates into differences in how worried people are about a virus that remains a serious threat until most of the country — and the world — gets vaccinated. Despite recent drops in cases, 43% of Black Americans and 39% of Hispanics are very or extremely worried about themselves or a loved one getting COVID-19, compared to just 25% of white people. (For other racial and ethnic groups, sample sizes are too small to analyze.)

While vaccines offer real hope for ending the scourge, the poll also found about 1 in 3 Americans don’t intend to get their shot. The most reluctant: Younger adults, people without college degrees, and Republicans.

The hardest-hit are also having the hardest time getting vaccinated: 16% of Black Americans and 15% of Hispanics say they already have received at least one shot, compared to 26% of white people. But majorities in each group want to get vaccinated.

Currently demand for vaccines still outstrips supply, and about 4 in 10 Americans, especially older adults, say the sign-up process has been poor.

John Perez, a retired teacher and school administrator in Los Angeles, spent hours trying to sign up online before giving up. Then a friend found a drive-thru vaccination site with openings.

“When I was driving there for the first shot, I was going through a tunnel of emotions,” the 68-year-old said. “I knew what a special moment it was.”

Overall, confidence in the vaccines is slowly strengthening. The poll found 25% of Americans aren’t confident the shots were properly tested, down somewhat from 32% who expected they wouldn’t be in December, just before the first ones were cleared.

“We were a little skeptical when it was first coming out because it was so politicized,” said Bob Richard, 50, of Smithfield, Rhode Island. But now, he said his family is inclined to get the shots — if they can sort through the appointment system when it’s their turn.

The poll found two-thirds of Americans say their fellow citizens nationwide haven’t taken the pandemic seriously enough.

“The conflict with people who don’t take it serious as I do, it’s disappointing,” said Wayne Denley, 73, of Alexandria, Louisiana.

Early on, he and his wife started keeping a list of people they knew who’d gotten sick. By November, they’d counted nine deaths and dozens of infections. He’d share the sobering list with people doubtful of the pandemic’s toll, yet still would see unmasked acquaintances while running errands.

“I’m glad I wrote them down — it helped make it real for me,” Denley said. “You sort of become numb to it.”

There are exceptionally wide partisan differences. Most Democrats, 60%, say their local communities failed to take the threat seriously enough and even more, 83%, say the country as a whole didn’t either.

Among Republicans, 31% say their localities didn’t take the pandemic seriously enough, and 44% said that of the country. But another third of Republicans say the U.S. overreacted.

The differences translate into behavior: More than three-quarters of Democrats say they always wear a mask around others compared to about half of Republicans.

And the divisions have Phan, the psychiatrist, worried.

“We’ve survived something that we should be grateful for having survived it. How do we repay or reciprocate that good fortune? The only way to do it is to be stronger in the year after the epidemic than before,” he said.

___

Neergaard reported from Alexandria, Virginia, and Renault reported from New York. Associated Press journalist John Seewer contributed to this report.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,434 adults was conducted Feb. 25-March 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Collin Binkley and Hannah Fingerhut | the Associated Press

March 23, 2021

BOSTON (AP) — Parents across the U.S. are conflicted about reopening schools. Most are at least somewhat worried that a return to the classroom will lead to more coronavirus cases, but there’s an even deeper fear that their children are falling behind in school while at home.

Sixty-nine percent of parents are at least somewhat concerned that their children will face setbacks in school because of the coronavirus pandemic, including 42% who say they’re very or extremely worried about it, according to a new poll from The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Nearly as many, 64%, say they are at least somewhat concerned that in-person instruction will lead to more people being infected, but it’s only 33% who say they are very or extremely worried about the risk.

That tension reflects the fears of a nation on the cusp of a widespread return to classroom teaching. More than a year after the pandemic started, more schools are now opening their doors to students or plan to do so in coming weeks.

Parents’ concerns about their children falling behind were even stronger in an AP-NORC poll last July, after the school year was interrupted in the spring by the burgeoning pandemic. Concerns about the spread of the virus in general also have ticked down to a low point as many look hopefully to a chance to ease back to normal.

Pressure to reopen schools has come from parents, state officials and President Joe Biden, who has vowed to have most of the nation’s elementary schools open five days a week in his administration’s first 100 days. Even as many schools already offer some level of in-person teaching, there’s growing demand to bring students back every day.

For parents, concerns about the pandemic’s impact go beyond academics — most also worry at least some that their children will fall behind socially and lose access to school sports and other activities, the poll found.

Maria Sanchez, a mother of four in Hawthorne, California, said the past year has been especially trying for her youngest daughter, Naomi, who’s now in sixth grade. Before the pandemic, Naomi was a star student who mostly earned As and Bs. But since classes moved online last year, it hasn’t been uncommon to see Ds on her report cards, Sanchez said.

“It just seems so hard for her to understand anything,” Sanchez said. Naomi logs on for every class, she added, but the comfort of home makes it harder to focus. “She doesn’t take notes. She’s not writing anything,” Sanchez said. “She’s not learning anything.”

Sanchez welcomed the recent news that Naomi’s school is planning a return to classroom instruction. But her relief was joined by fears about the virus spreading within the school district, where she works as a food services manager.

“Even though I’m happy they’re opening the school and my daughter gets to go back and do her best, I’m still concerned about the virus,” she said.

Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines saying schools can safely reopen with masks, social distancing and other measures even if teachers have not received vaccines. Even in areas with higher virus rates, the agency said, younger students are generally safe to continue with classroom instruction.

Despite the CDC’s guidance, however, Americans remain divided over what’s needed for a safe reopening. Most say masks are important, but it’s not a universal expectation: 62% say it’s essential to require masks among students and teachers, while 22% say it’s important but not essential, the poll found.

The CDC last week relaxed its social distancing guidelines in schools, saying it’s safe to seat students as close as 3 feet (0.9 meters) apart. The agency previously recommended 6 feet (1.8 meters), leading many schools to reduce classes to half their usual size. Just under half of Americans said they think it’s essential to limit class sizes, however, while another 4 in 10 said it’s important but not required.

Hoping to speed up the return to the classroom, the Biden administration recently ordered all states to prioritize teachers and other school staff in their vaccine rollouts. The move was seen as a victory for teachers unions, some of which demanded vaccines even after the CDC said shots were not a requirement to reopen safely.

But Americans disagree on the need for teacher vaccines. About 4 in 10 say it’s essential, while about a third say it’s important but not essential.

The clashing opinions have translated to a patchwork of policies. While some states have already made vaccines available to all teachers, some have just started to make them eligible. And while many states continue to require masks in schools, states have lifted mandates, allowing districts to decide their own policies.

Biden’s recently signed $1.9 trillion relief bill includes more than $120 billion to help schools reopen and recover from the pandemic. At least 20% of that must be spent on efforts to address learning setbacks worsened by the pandemic.

Most Americans embrace that kind of effort: 81% said they support government-funded summer school or tutoring to help students who fall behind, and just 6% are opposed. Another 12% didn’t have an opinion.

Frustrations over online learning have also sparked hope among school choice advocates that more families will turn to education options beyond their traditional public schools. Several states have introduced legislation to create or expand voucher programs for that purpose, and many parents indicated support for those kinds of programs has ticked up.

Forty-six percent support tax-funded vouchers for low-income students to pay for tuition at private or religious schools, while 31% are opposed. In an AP-NORC poll in December 2019, Americans were more closely divided, with 42% in favor and 37% opposed.

Support is even higher among Black Americans, with 62% in favor, up somewhat from 53% in 2019.

Although parents’ fears about learning setbacks seem to outweigh their fears of the virus, some families are in no rush to reopen schools.

Jessica Battle, of Hamtramck, Michigan, said her daughters, ages 5 and 7, have continued to learn while in online classes. Her older daughter, Sadie, is where she should be in reading and math, and her younger daughter, Clara, enjoys her prekindergarten program. In a recent school survey, Battle said she supports a return to school, but she’s on the fence.

“I would be content keeping them at home the rest of the year, too,” she said. “The teachers have been great at maintaining their classrooms, and both of my kids really like their teachers.”

___

Fingerhut reported from Washington.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,076 adults was conducted Feb. 25-March 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Julie Pace and Emily Swanson | the Associated Press

March 31, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are broadly supportive of President Joe Biden’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a new poll finds, and approval of his stewardship of the economy has ticked up following passage of a sprawling $1.9 trillion relief bill.

But Americans are more critical of Biden’s early approach to some of the hot-button issues that are moving to the forefront, including guns and immigration, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The president has outlined goals for tackling both issues but has made clear that they are not his immediate legislative priorities.

“I’m going to deal with all those problems. The question is the priorities as they come and land on my plate,” Biden said in a news conference last week.

Biden’s early weeks in office have made it abundantly clear that his top priority is curtailing the pandemic: urging Americans to take precautionary measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, prioritizing the rollout of vaccines and pushing the relief bill through Congress in a party line vote. Vaccine distribution has soared since Biden took office, with more than 96 million Americans having received at least one dose.

Americans have responded favorably to the president’s approach, with 73% approving of his handling of the pandemic. That includes about half of Republicans, a rarity given how divided Americans have been along party lines on many key issues in recent years.

Gwen Medley, a nurse from Galveston, Texas, who has been administering vaccines in her state, is among them. The 66-year-old Republican is critical of Biden on a range of other issues, including immigration, but said the president is doing a “pretty good job” on the pandemic so far — in part, she says, because of vaccine efforts he inherited from the Trump administration.

“Trump got the ball rolling, and Biden is continuing to push that ball,” Medley said.

Notably, Biden’s approval rating on the economy has ticked up slightly since passage of the relief bill, which included direct payments to millions of Americans and aid to schools and state and local governments. Sixty percent of Americans now say they approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, compared with 55% a month ago.

Overall, Biden’s job approval sits at a healthy 61% as he enters his third month in office, according to the AP-NORC survey. That’s well above the approval ratings for his predecessor, Donald Trump, at this same point in his presidency. Trump’s overall approval rating never topped 50% in an AP-NORC survey.

Biden and his advisers contend that despite the litany of issues facing the country, he will be judged foremost on his handling of the pandemic, now in its second year. The virus has killed more than 550,000 people in the U.S., and even with vaccines more accessible, some states are experiencing a surge in cases as new variants take hold.

“Our work is far from over,” Biden said this week as he implored states to keep mask mandates and other restrictions in place. “The war against COVID-19 is far from won. This is deadly serious.”

Much of Biden’s efforts have been in sharp contrast to Trump, who emphasized the need to keep businesses open and the U.S. economy humming, even if that meant flouting public health guidelines for controlling the pandemic. Biden has flipped that approach, but also tried to supplement the economy through the legislation he signed into law in early March.

No Republicans in Congress voted for the measure, with some arguing that it unnecessarily added to the federal budget deficit at a time when the economy was already moving in a more positive direction.

Americans are split over Biden’s handling of the deficit, with 48% saying they approve and 50% saying they disapprove. The majority of Democrats — 77% — approve, while the majority of Republicans — 83% — disapprove.

Biden faces a similar partisan divide on gun policy and immigration, two issues that have quickly disrupted Biden’s carefully laid plans for his opening months in office.

On gun policy, 45% say they back Biden’s approach, while 52% disapprove. The survey was conducted after a pair of deadly mass shootings, one in Atlanta that killed eight people, including six Asian Americans, and another at a grocery store in Colorado that left 10 people dead. Biden has said he’s considering executive actions to tighten gun restrictions, but has also said he believes “rational” legislation could pass the narrowly divided Senate.

He’s called on the Senate, in particular, to pass measures already approved by the House that would expand background checks, though he’s putting his own political muscle first into a $2 trillion infrastructure package the White House unveiled this week.

Biden is also confronting mounting concerns along the U.S.-Mexico border, where the number of families and migrant children arriving is on the rise. Republicans have blamed the increases on Biden’s swift rollback of some of Trump’s most aggressive immigration deterrent policies, moves the White House has warned should not be viewed as an open invitation to cross the border.

The White House, in turn, has blamed the situation at the border in large part on the conditions it inherited from the Trump administration. In addition to his executive actions, Biden has unveiled a legislative proposal that would provide an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of people currently in the U.S. illegally.

So far, just 42% say they approve of how Biden is handling immigration, and a similar share, 44%, say they approve of how he’s handling border security.

While much of Biden’s early focus has been on domestic matters, foreign policy concerns also loom. The president has a 55% approval rating on foreign policy, putting that issue slightly below his overall job performance. The poll also finds Americans cite the threat to the U.S. from the spread of infectious diseases and the threat from extremist militant groups as among their top concerns, along with China’s influence around the world.

Democrats and Republicans have differing concerns about the greatest threats facing the United States. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cite the spread of infectious diseases (69% to 47%), extremist militant groups (67% to 51%) and climate change (76% to 22%) as threats to the U.S. They also are slightly more concerned about Russia’s global influence (50% to 42%).

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be very concerned about the threat posed by illegal immigration (72% to 22%), China’s influence around the world (68% to 44%), the Iranian nuclear program (58% vs 39%), and the North Korean nuclear program (51% to 41%).

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,166 adults was conducted March 26-29 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Josh Boak and Hannah Fingerhut | the Associated Press

April 1, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Views of the nation’s economy are the rosiest they’ve been since the pandemic began more than a year ago, buoyed by Democrats feeling increasingly optimistic as President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package is distributed across the country.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs finds 46% of Americans overall now view the economy as good, up from the 37% who felt that way last month. Views of the economy had tanked at the onset of the pandemic in April last year, when 29% said it was in good shape.

Fifty-eight percent of Democrats now describe economic conditions as good, compared with 35% of Republicans. Democratic sentiments about the economy improved after Biden replaced Donald Trump in the White House, with optimism increasing even further after he signed his landmark relief package into law.

Just 15% of Democrats felt positive about the economy in December, but 41% did in February. Among Republicans, positive views plummeted from 67% in December to 35% by February.

Americans might yearn for cooperation between Republicans and Democrats, but they also acknowledge the persistent divide as the economy has begun to heal from the coronavirus.

“I would like to see a lot more cooperation between the two parties,” said Leo Martin, 84, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a former community college teacher. “But I’m afraid it’s going to be similar to the last four years with the two parties not working together. I blame this not just on Donald Trump, but on the press that supported Trump and egged him on. I think it was divided before and just got progressively worse.”

Americans’ improved outlook generally reflects the favorable impressions of Biden’s relief package and the mass vaccinations that have allowed more schools, offices and retailers to reopen. Based on economic forecasts, Biden suggested last week that growth this year could top 6% — the strongest performance in 37 years. That level of growth would likely come with enough hiring to boost national morale, potentially softening some of the polarization that has defined U.S. politics for more than a decade.

The poll shows 54% of Americans approve of the economic relief law, while 25% disapprove. An additional 21% say they hold neither opinion. Large majorities approve of many of the law’s components, including vaccination funding, direct payments of $1,400 and extended unemployment insurance, funding for schools to reopen, aid for families and housing payment assistance.

Views are more mixed about the price tag after $4 trillion was previously spent to support the economy as the pandemic caused mass layoffs and business closures. Forty-two percent say the debt-financed law spends about the right amount on relief, but an additional 31% say it spends too much and 26% say it spends too little.

Matt Holland of Guilford, Maine, said his paintball business is down 30% over the year, but he has adapted and survived because he carries no debt. He voted for Trump in 2020 and anticipates a surge in growth as more of the country is vaccinated, but he worries that a rising deficit could hinder the economy in the years to come.

“I’m not one of those believers who says you can print money and the deficit doesn’t matter —eventually, your currency isn’t worth anything,” said Holland, 62.

While Republicans are more likely to say they disapprove of the relief package, they are not significantly hostile to many of its elements despite the opposition by GOP lawmakers. At least two-thirds of Republicans approve of the law’s funding for grants and low-interest loans for small businesses, funding for vaccine distribution and funding for schools to reopen safely.

Overall, 70% of Americans approve of the $1,400 payments sent directly to eligible Americans, including 86% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans.

Michelle Djajich, 34, said the direct payment will help buy new clothes for her four children, who are growing out of just about everything. But she worries that the enhanced unemployment benefits are encouraging people not to work. She has a position open at a Quizno’s sandwich shop where she works that pays $10.80 an hour and it’s hard to find anyone to hire.

“If people don’t go back to work, all that money is going to be spent, and the economy is still going to be hurting,” said Djajich, who lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

About two-thirds of Americans support funding for mortgage and rent assistance, including roughly 8 in 10 Democrats and about half of Republicans. About 6 in 10 Americans support the extended moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, including three-quarters of Democrats and close to half of Republicans.

Overall, 61% of Americans approve of the way Biden is handling his job as president; 73% approve of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic; and 60% approve of how he is handling the economy. Fewer, 48%, approve of Biden’s handling of the federal budget deficit.

The direct payments from the relief law do appear to be making an impact in people’s lives. Half say they already received the money; a quarter say they expect to receive one.

Among those Americans who say they have received or expect to receive a payment, 33% say most of it will be used to pay bills. An additional 21% say most of the money will pay down debt. About 23% plan to save most of the payment, while 16% intend to increase their spending. Just 3% say they will donate or give it to friends or family.

Skip Kendall, 72, from Naples, Florida, said he appreciated the relief package, but he felt the payments should have been better targeted.

“There was way too many people who got money who didn’t need it — including me,” said Kendall, who put the money into savings. “I’m not going to send it back. But these things should be better directed to the people who needed it.”

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,166 adults was conducted March 26-29 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

By Steven Sloan and Thomas Beaumont | The Associated Press

February 8, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Only a fragment of Americans believe democracy is thriving in the U.S., even as broad majorities agree that representative government is one of the country’s bedrock principles, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Just 16% of Americans say democracy is working well or extremely well, a pessimism that spans the political spectrum. Nearly half of Americans, 45%, think democracy isn’t functioning properly, while another 38% say it’s working only somewhat well.

The core elements of democratic government, including free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power, were put to a dire test by the baseless claims of election fraud advanced by former President Donald Trump. Those assertions of fraud were a root cause of the deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol last month, which damaged the country’s reputation as a model for democracy.

Trump will face an unprecedented second impeachment trial in the Senate this week for his role in sparking the violence. About half of Americans say the Senate should convict the Republican former president.

“At every turn, it’s gotten worse and worse,” said Curtis Musser, a 55-year-old Republican-leaning independent in Clermont, Florida, who didn’t vote for Trump. “You could see it brewing even before the election. And everything just kept spiraling downward from there.”

The poll’s findings are broadly consistent with how Americans graded democracy before the election. But there are signs that Trump’s attacks on the democratic process, including his repeated and discredited argument that the election was “stolen” because of voter irregularities, resonated with Republicans.

In October, about two-thirds of those who identify with the GOP, 68%, said democracy was working at least somewhat well. That figure plummeted to 36% in January. Democratic views whipsawed in the opposite direction, with 70% reporting democracy working at least somewhat well compared with 37% in the fall.

Overall, about two-thirds of Americans say Joe Biden was legitimately elected president, but only a third of Republicans hold that view.

That debate is now playing out in Congress, with a clear split among Republican leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. Liz Cheney and others who have rejected Trump’s claims and validated Biden’s victory. Still, more than 140 House Republicans refused to accept Biden’s victory, a sign of the far right’s grip on the party.

GOP officials in several battleground states that Biden carried, including Arizona and Georgia, have said the election was fair. Trump’s claims were roundly rejected in the courts, including by judges appointed by Trump, and by his former attorney general, William Barr.

Fred Carrigan, a 58-year-old industrial heating mechanic in Portland, Indiana, said he doesn’t believe Trump’s argument that the election was stolen. But he also views the push to impeach and convict Trump as an affront to democracy. A conviction would give senators the option to ban Trump from seeking office again.

“Trump didn’t do himself any favors by telling them to go march. But he didn’t tell them to vandalize the Capitol,” Carrigan said. “I don’t think it’s impeachable. Impeaching him is petty. They are a bunch of children trying to prove who is right, when it doesn’t matter in the big picture.”

“All this shows is it’s just going to get worse,” he said.

Biden, a Democrat, has pledged to use the power of the presidency to promote democratic ideals.

In one of the first tests of that commitment, he was quick to condemn military leaders who staged a coup last week in Myanmar, threatening sanctions and blasting a “direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and rule of law.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, has said the Biden administration is “deeply concerned” by Russia’s jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

An overwhelming majority of Americans, 70%, say they believe Biden respects democratic institutions at least a fair amount. But there is a stark political split with about 96% of Democrats saying Biden respects such institutions, compared with about 42% of Republicans.

Those are still much higher marks than Trump earned: 62% say the former president has little or no respect for democratic traditions or institutions. That view is held by 93% of Democrats and, notably, 27% of Republicans.

Linda Reynolds, a 64-year-old retired paper sales representative in Torrance, California, was a lifelong Republican until Trump captured the party’s presidential nomination in 2016. With Biden in the White House, she’s feeling better about whether the U.S. will again embrace democracy.

“We obviously have a lot of problems,” she said. “But in the big picture, reason seems to have prevailed, hopefully in the eyes of the world.”

While Americans are downbeat on the current state of democracy, they are unified that such a form of government is still the desired approach. Eighty percent say a democratically elected government is very or extremely important to the nation’s identity.

Support persisted or was even higher for other central tenets of the nation’s democratic government. Eighty-eight percent say a fair judicial system and the rule of law are very or extremely important, and 85% held similar feelings about individual liberties and freedoms as defined by the Constitution.

Those tenets of democracy are considered important by large majorities of Republicans and Democrats.

Despite dour views of how the U.S. is being governed today, the poll finds heightened optimism about the country’s future. Nearly half, 49%, say things are headed in the right direction, compared with 37% in December and 25% in October. Optimism hit a low, 20%, last summer. Much of the surge in optimism came among Democrats, who are confident in Biden and his ability to govern and manage crises facing the country.

“We remain a great country and do a lot of good things,” Reynolds said.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut and Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,055 adults was conducted Jan. 28-Feb. 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

___

Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.