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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Americans Demand Focus on Domestic Policy
USA Today is reporting the results of the latest Pew poll, in which a majority expresses its desire for a renewed focus on domestic policy:
More than half of Americans now say it is more important for the president to focus on domestic policy — the first time since Sept. 11, 2001 that domestic matters have been viewed as a higher priority than the war on terrorism in polling by the Pew Research Center.
Two-thirds said the president could have done more to get relief efforts going quickly, according to the survey.
The slow-moving response to the hurricane appears to have shaken American confidence in the government's ability to deal with a major disaster. Four in 10 said the response to the hurricane has made them less confident about the government's ability to handle a major terrorist attack.
Almost six in 10 in the Pew poll, 58%, say they have felt depressed because of what's happened along the Gulf Coast. Pew polling indicates that at no point during the Iraq war has that high a percentage of people said they were depressed because of the war.
The findings should not be all that surprising: majorities consistently report that they believe the government has an important role in protecting public health and safety. Meanwhile, those same majorities have been witnessing, with horror, the results of government's failure to fulfill that role.
Posted by Robert Shull
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