Campaign Exposes Fissures Over Issues, Values and How Life Has Changed in the US

The 2016 presidential campaign has exposed deep disagreements between – and within – the two parties on a range of major policy issues. But these divisions go well beyond the issues and extend to fundamentally different visions of the way that life in the United States has changed.

Overall, 46% of registered voters say that life in America today is worse than it was 50 years ago “for people like them,” while 34% say life is better and 14% think it is about the same. Republican and Republican-leaning voters are more than twice as likely as Democratic voters to say life in this country has gotten worse over the past half-century for people like them (66% to 28%). Among GOP voters, fully 75% of those who support Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination say life for people like them has gotten worse, compared with 63% of Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) supporters and 54% of those who back Gov John Kasich (R-OH). While Democratic voters generally express more positive views of how life in the US has changed over the past 50 years, those who favor Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are more negative (34% say life has gotten worse) than those who support Hillary Clinton (22%).

The major issues that have emerged in the presidential campaign reveal divisions within the two parties in different ways. But for the most part, the gaps are much wider among Republican voters than among Democrats, especially when it comes to opinions about immigrants and immigration policy, government scrutiny of Muslims in the United States, and abortion and other social issues. As they were in January, registered voters are generally skeptical that any of the presidential candidates would make a good president.