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In other recent polling, the share of registered voters who think things in the U.S. are \"generally headed in the right direction\" remained relatively low (around 30 percent) in the months before and after the election, but that feeling has risen sharply among Republicans while plummeting among Democrats, most of whom now say the country is \"off on the wrong track.\"

These patterns aren't unique to the 2024 election, though. For instance, YouGov/The Economist's regular tracking polls show that there was a huge bump in the share of Republicans who felt good about the country's direction right after Trump's 2016 victory, and an even bigger one after he took office the next January. The same was true for Democrats after Biden's win four years later.

Needless to say, it's pretty normal in today's highly polarized times for Americans' outlook for the country to correlate closely with whether their preferred party holds the presidency. But there are ways that Republicans' optimism and Democrats' pessimism this year does stand out. Notably, Democrats are particularly pessimistic about the future of their own party, while Republicans are riding high.

A mid-November survey by Pew Research found that Americans who identify with or lean toward the GOP felt better about their party's future than they ever have in the Trump era: A whopping 86 percent said they felt optimistic, compared to only 13 percent who felt pessimistic. In contrast, only 51 percent of Democrats said they felt optimistic about the future of their party, while 49 percent felt pessimistic. That's 10 points lower than the 61 percent who were still optimistic about the party after Trump's first win in 2016, and a drop of more than 30 points compared to 2020. So while Republicans try to put their optimism into action, Democrats look to be in for some soul searching.

—Tia Yang

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