CNN Poll: A record share of Americans want the government to get more done. Few trust either party to do it

CNN

a day ago

Neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party has consolidated a majority of the public behind its approach, with more than 4 in 10 saying that neither party can get things done or has strong leadership, a new CNN survey conducted by SSRS finds. Despite those widespread doubts, Americans increasingly say they see meaningful differences between the two parties.
The poll, taken as public opinion resettles in the first months of Donald Trump's second administration, also finds a record-high share of the public saying that the government should be doing more to solve problems. Americans are evenly split on which party best reflects their views on the role of the federal government, with one-third of respondents saying neither party does.
Amid a wave of skepticism among Democrats about their own party's effectiveness, the GOP currently holds the advantage across several key attributes — though with a shrinking advantage on the economy, which regularly polls as Americans' top concern.
Americans see Republicans and Democrats as offering vastly contrasting visions of the country. An 81% majority say they see important differences between the two parties, marking an increase from two years ago across political, age and educational lines. Just 18% say the parties are 'pretty much the same,' down from 28% in 2023 and roughly one-third in CNN and Gallup polling dating back to 2002.
But even among those who say there are critical differences between the two major parties, a sizable minority say neither reflects their vision across a range of issues: Nearly 20% who see such differences still say neither party reflects their perspective on at least 5 out of 9 issues they were asked about in the poll.
Asked to choose which of the parties they see as the 'party that can get things done,' 'the party with strong leaders' or the 'party of change,' the lion's share of the public – more than 4 in 10 – say that neither party fits the bill.
At the same time, most Americans, 58%, now say that the government should do more to solve the country's problems – a record high in more than 30 years of CNN's polling. While Democratic views on the role of government have remained largely unchanged over the past two years, the shares of Republicans and independents who say that the government is doing too many things have both fallen since the White House changed hands.
While neither political party is viewed as especially strong or effective, skepticism weighs particularly heavily on the Democratic Party. Americans are far more likely to see Republicans than Democrats as the party with strong leaders: 40% say this descriptor applies more to the GOP, with just 16% saying it applies to the Democrats. They're also more likely to call Republicans the party that can get things done by 36% to 19%, and the party of change, by 32% to 25%.
That's in large part because of relatively anemic support for Democrats among their own partisans. GOP-aligned adults are 50 points likelier than Democratic-aligned adults to say their own party has strong leaders, and 36 points likelier to view their party as able to get things done.
True independents, those who don't lean toward either party, are particularly grim in their views of the parties on these issues: 76% say neither party has strong leaders or can get things done, and 72% that they view neither as the party of change.
While the public as a whole sees the GOP as relatively effective, they also say, 41% to 30%, that it's better described as the party of extremism, the only attribute tested that fewer than 30% said applied to neither party. Roughly one-sixth of Republican-aligned adults say they view the GOP as representing extremism, compared with roughly one-tenth of Democratic-aligned adults who say the same of their own party.
Beyond Americans' shifting views of government, the survey also finds ebbing belief in the achievability of the American Dream. A 54% majority says that most people who want to get ahead can make it if they're willing to work hard, down from 67% in 2016, and lower than other polling on the same question dating back to the 1990s.
Nearly half, 45%, say they don't view hard work and determination as any guarantee of success for most people. That rises to a 52% majority of Black Americans and 53% among those younger than 30, as well as 53% of those who don't agree with either party on the economy, 65% among Democrats and 71% among those who describe themselves as liberal.
Americans are closely split on which party represents the middle class, with a third saying neither does. The view that neither party stands for the middle class rises to 38% among those who say hard work and determination are no guarantee of success for most people.
Asked which party best reflects their views on handling the economy more broadly – a perennial top issue that has frequently favored the GOP – the public gives the Republican Party an advantage, but a shrinking one. The party's 7-point margin on the issue now is down from 15 points in May 2022, and marks their narrowest advantage on the issue over that time.
The Republican Party also sees a diminished edge on immigration, another typically strong topic for the Trump-led party: What was a 14-point lead in November 2023 now stands at just 6 points. Looking outward, Americans are now evenly divided on which party's views on world affairs more closely match their own, an issue where Republicans held a 6-point edge in 2023.
Across issues tested in the poll, Republicans held the widest advantage – 13 points – on their approach to crime and policing, and that margin has largely held over time. The public also leans modestly toward the GOP when it comes to taxes (by a 7-point margin) and the federal budget (5 points).
Support for legal abortion remains strong in CNN's polling, with a rising share of the public, 36%, now saying that abortion should be legal under any circumstances. Roughly 6 in 10 Democrats now say abortion should always be legal, up from 44% in 2016. In a CNN survey last year, a roughly two-thirds majority of the public opposed the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
By a 10-point margin, Americans say their views on abortion align more with the Democrats than the Republicans, although that's down from a 16-point advantage in fall 2023.
Roughly two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the GOP reflects their views on abortion – significantly lower than the share who side with their party on issues such as the economy or immigration.
Amid internal Democratic arguments over the party's messaging on issues surrounding race and gender, the poll finds that Americans side with the Democratic Party over the Republican Party on the way society deals with LGBTQ issues by an 8-point margin and with racial issues and education by a 7-point margin each.
By a wide margin, 72% to 27%, most Americans say that growing racial diversity does more to enrich than threaten American culture. That's slightly broader agreement than last fall, though it still falls short of the more than 8 in 10 who called diversity enriching during Trump's first term. The sense of diversity as a threat is largely concentrated among the GOP, particularly among Republican-aligned men. Currently, 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents call diversity a threat, up from just 20% who said the same in 2019, during Trump's first term in office. Democratic opinion has moved little in that time.
Democrats held their widest advantage in the poll, 14 points, on handling climate change. A 58% majority of adults say they're at least somewhat worried about the risks of climate change in their community, down slightly from the 63% who said they were at least somewhat worried in the fall of 2023. About one-quarter in each poll said they were very worried.
By a 5-point margin, Americans say their view of how to protect U.S. democracy aligns more with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.
Roughly half of Americans say that democracy in the U.S. today is under attack, with 36% saying it's being tested, and only about 13% that it's not in any danger. While these concerns have held roughly steady since 2021, partisan dynamics have shifted sharply in that time. In the latest poll, 72% of Democrats see democracy in crisis, compared with just 29% of Republicans. By contrast, during Joe Biden's presidency, concerns were either roughly balanced or higher among the GOP.
The CNN poll was conducted among 2,539 adults nationwide by SSRS from May 5-26, using a combination of online and telephone interviews. The survey samples were originally drawn from two sources – an address-based sample and a random-digit dial sample of prepaid cell phone numbers – and combined. Respondents were initially contacted by mail or by phone. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.