Voters before State of the Union say US is 'bad,' a 'mess' and 'divided'

Registered voters asked to describe the State of the Union in the days before President Trump's Tuesday night address to the nation used words like "bad," a "mess" and "divided," underlining the pessimism even among Republicans about the country.

The majority of respondents in a new Hill-HarrisX poll used combative or negative words when asked to complete the sentence: “In your mind, the State of the Union is.” An analysis of the responses found that Democrats skewed more negative than independents and Republicans in their word choice.

GOP voters were less likely to strike a negative tone, but they also gravitated away from positive words, oftentimes framing their responses in opposition to Democrats rather than in favor of Trump.

"Without partisan cues, all groups had somewhat negative reactions to the current state of the union," Jason Sclar, a research fellow at HarrisX told Hill.TV. "These look quite different from questions that invoke partisanship, like presidential approval where Republicans overwhelmingly approve of the president while Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove."

https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/428551-asked-to-describe-the-state-of-the-union-even-republicans

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