Gallup: People Are Less Worried Now Than in 2008

Brittany M. Hughes | March 2, 2017
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In general, Americans are experiencing less daily worry after President Donald Trump’s inauguration than they were after President Obama first took office in January 2008.

According to a new poll out from Gallup, which surveyed 104,654 adults across all 50 states and D.C., only 33 percent of American adults told Gallup they’ve experienced daily “worry” after Trump took the oath of office.

By comparison, nearly 36 percent said the same thing in the weeks following President Obama’s swearing-in back in 2008.

Gallup notes that only 26.5 percent of Republicans admitted they were worried after Trump’s inauguration. Democrats, on the other hand, appear to have been royally freaking out. While only 30.8 percent of Democrats reported being worried before last year's election, more than 39 percent said they were worried after Trump's inauguration. (Perhaps this is why so many are flocking to therapists’ offices complaining about post-election trauma.)

However, what Gallup doesn’t point out is that the number of Democrats who told Gallup they were worried after Trump’s inauguration (39.3 percent) was only one percentage point higher than those who said they were worried post-Obama’s oath of office (38.3 percent).

Now frankly, this is actually a pretty dumb poll. No one can accurately gauge how “worried” Americans are at any given point. However, it’s worth noting that Gallup – historically a left-leaning polling agency – used their results to whine that “Americans' emotional health has suffered since the 2016 election.”

The pollsters point out that the percent of Americans who reported being worried pre-election rose about 4 percentage points after Trump’s inauguration. By contrast, only .9 percent of Americans were more worried after Obama’s swearing-in than were before the 2007 election. Gallup high-handedly observes:

There appears to be something about Trump in particular -- possibly his controversial statements and actions after being elected and during his first few weeks in office -- that may be contributing to a larger rise in worry now than after the 2008 election.

However, Gallup fails to note in its analysis that even if more Americans report being worried now than before Nov. 8, they’re still less “worried” in general than they were eight years ago.

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