Forty-two percent (42%) of U.S. voters now say the United States will not be the most powerful nation in the world at the end of the 21st Century. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 32% disagree and believe the United States still will be the world’s number one superpower at the century’s end. Twenty-six percent (26%) more are not sure.
Prior to this survey, the number voicing a pessimistic view about the U.S. position in the world had ranged from 35% to 41%.
Over the past year, belief that the United States will remain number one has ranged from a low of 27% to a high of 35%.
Thirty-nine percent (39%) expect the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world to worsen over the next year, a high hit only once before – in December – during the past year of surveying. Just 14% think that relationship will get better in the next 12 months, while 43% say it will stay the same.
Last June just after President Obama’s major outreach speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt, 32% said the relationship will get better, while 28% expected it to get worse. Thirty-five percent (35%) anticipated little change. Since then, optimism about improved relations between America and the Muslim world has steadily declined.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 20-21, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Confidence in America’s efforts in the War on Terror has fallen again this month, and, following the unsuccessful bombing attempt in New York's Times Square by Islamic terrorists, more voters than ever believe the nation is not safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
African-Americans are much more confident than white voters that America will be the most powerful nation in the world at the end of the 21st Century. Younger voters are more inclined to disagree than their elders.
Democrats are nearly twice as likely as Republicans to say America will still be number one then. The majority(52%) of voters not affiliated with either party disagree and say the United States will not be the world’s most powerful nation.
The Political Class is much more bullish about the nation’s future. Seventy-two percent (72%) of the Political Class think the United States will remain the world’s most powerful nation, but 53% of Mainstream voters don’t expect that to be the case.
Fifty percent (50%) of Mainstream voters also believe the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world will get worse over the next year. Among the Political Class, 46% say that relationship will get better, and 48% think it will stay about the same.
Just 41% of all voters now believe it is possible for the United States to win the nearly nine-year-old war in Afghanistan. LINK to http://www.rasmussenreports.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/afghanistan/41_say_u_s_can_win_war_in_afghanistan_36_disagree
As the saber-rattling increases on the Korean Peninsula, 47% of U.S. voters think the United States should provide military assistance to South Korea if it is attacked by its Communist neighbor to the north.
Still, Iran remains at the top of the list of countries seen as the biggest threats to U.S. national security, with China second and North Korea third.
Only 28% of Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction. Sixty percent (60%) of Americans say today’s children will not be better off than their parents.
