Opinion Today
March 19, 2025
‘What Is Government For’? 14 Hard-Hit Voters Debate a Big Question in the Era of Trump and Musk Katherine Miller, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Adrian J. Rivera, New York Times [unlocked] In Opinion’s latest focus group, we spoke with 14 people from North Carolina who were either directly affected last year by Hurricane Helene, or who had close friends or family members who were. Because of that event, many of them were directly confronted with these questions of government help and trust in institutions. At a time when the future of many government services could change significantly, we asked them about what Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk are doing and how other leaders, like Joe Biden, handled the crisis.
White men, white women and the gap within the gender gap Steve Kornacki, NBC News New NBC News polling data illustrates the cultural and political gulf separating white men without college degrees and white women with college degrees.
Trump, Biden and … bin Laden? New poll shows partisanship running wild. Philip Bump, Washington Post [unlocked] Republicans and Democrats see recent presidents through a hyperbolic lens.
What do Americans think about immigrants? It depends on how you ask Alexander Rossell Hayes, YouGov A year ago we conducted an experiment randomly assigning panelists to answer questions about their opinions towards “immigrants,” “illegal immigrants,” or “undocumented immigrants.” Our results show that small changes in how immigrants are asked about can lead to big changes in how Americans answer.
College Prices Seen as Unfair but Worth the Investment Stephanie Marken and Zach Hrynowski, Gallup Fewer than one in five current or prospective U.S. college students (18%) believe four-year colleges charge fair prices for what they offer students, while a majority (59%) disagree. Attitudes toward the prices of two-year colleges are more positive, although less than half (40%) still say these colleges charge fair prices.
Global attitudes to happiness and quality of life Ipsos The Ipsos Happiness Index finds people are happiest in India and the Netherlands. The U.S. ranks lower than the global average at 68%.