Signs of optimism among investors 0:56
(CNN) -
Poll of the Week
: A new Gallup poll finds that 59.2% of Americans say they are thriving.
Also, 73% of Americans said they really enjoyed the day before.
The first is the highest rating Gallup has recorded since it was first taken more than 13 years ago.
The latter is the highest since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year.
What's the point
: The last year has been difficult for many Americans.
Among other issues, the coronavirus dominated our lives and there was a very controversial presidential election.
But with elections in the rearview mirror and more people reverting to their pre-pandemic routines, Americans are feeling much more optimistic.
Several different measures show that Americans feel better about themselves and the state of the country now than in a long time.
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The Gallup measures I mentioned shouldn't be too surprising given what we've been seeing in the Axios / Ipsos polls.
More Americans said their emotional well-being had improved compared to those who said it had worsened in polls since May.
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From the question first being asked in March 2020 to April this year, more Americans had said it had gotten worse than better in all polls.
This positivity goes beyond the personal and the political.
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In the right direction
Last week, an NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist College poll found that 47% of Americans said the country was heading in the right direction.
That was within the 49% margin of error that said we were going in the wrong direction.
This 47% was the highest percentage who said the country was heading in the right direction in Marist polls since 2009, during the first year of the Obama administration.
It's a big change from where former President Donald Trump was at this point in his presidency.
Only 31% of Americans said the country was going in the right direction in a June 2017 Marist poll, while 61% said we were going in the wrong direction.
Of course, Marist is just a pollster.
ANALYSIS |
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When we look at the average of all the polls, 43% of Americans agree that the country is going in the right direction compared to 51% who believe it is going the wrong way. Last year at this time, only 22% of Americans thought the country was going in the right direction. Four years ago, 34% said the country was heading in the right direction in an average of polls.
Although we would expect Democrats to be more optimistic now than they were then, it is notable that they are more positive about the direction of the country now than were Republicans four years ago.
In the Marist poll, for example, 87% of Democrats now think the country is headed in the right direction compared to 66% of Republicans in mid-2017. Similarly, many more independents say the country It is going in the right direction (44%) than it was four years ago at the moment (23%).
The last time before the administration of President Joe Biden that 43% of Americans said the country was heading in the right direction in average polls was in 2009.
In fact, the 43% who think the country was going in the right direction is actually a really good percentage historically.
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The mood before every presidential election
Last year Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report examined how many Americans thought the country was heading in the right direction before every presidential election since 1980.
On average, 42% of Americans said the country was going in the direction that the ruling party was re-elected to the White House.
A slightly higher 49% said the country was on the wrong track.
The percentages at this time are very similar to these averages.
They are very different from the average 25% of Americans who believe the country was headed in the right direction during the years the opposition party won the White House.
On Election Day last year, only about 30% of Americans said the country was heading in the right direction.
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Interestingly, perhaps the best way to know that people are feeling more charitable than usual about the state of our politics is to look to Congress.
Even the notoriously obnoxious Congress has seen its approval ratings rise this year.
For the first time since 2009, Congressional approval rate surpassed 30% this year.
Now a 30% approval rating isn't exactly high.
However, politics is often relative.
The question is whether Americans will continue to feel the good vibes.
If they do, Biden and the Democrats are likely to benefit.
If sentiments drop, Democrats are likely to face a difficult middle period.
USA