America’s Crisis of Confidence

The dreadful Wall Street Journal poll is not nearly pessimistic enough

America remains mired in dour anxiety. In fact, recent polling evidence reveals an all-out societal crisis.

Few citizens still believe in the promise of America overall, and most hold little hope for improving their particular life situation, either.

The Wall Street Journal just published the foreboding headline: “Voters See American Dream Slipping Out of Reach.” The subheading warned that “Fewer believe that anyone who works hard can get ahead.”

The Journal’s latest NORC survey found that only 36% of Americans believe that the “American Dream still holds true.” That number declined from a 53% majority who affirmed the American Dream just over a decade ago, in 2012. Moreover, the WSJ poll reports that only 30% of voters believe life has gotten better in America over the last 50 years.

Ok, those numbers are alarming – horrendous, as a matter of fact.

But…here’s the worse news: those figures are actually too rosy, given the latest Battleground State data.

My organization, the League of American Workers, commissioned a poll of 600 Arizona voters conducted by NorthStar Opinion Research and found that only 18% of Arizona voters believe that the American Dream is “still attainable.” A staggering 78% of Arizonans now believe that the American Dream is “out of reach.”

In Arizona, like most of America, economic anxiety drives the current discontent. Consistent with our previous four-state battleground polling, 77% of Arizonans report that America is on the “wrong track” and most of them point to the economy as the most pressing issue for their families.

Importantly, these survey results unveil a widespread dissatisfaction that extends way beyond partisan boundaries. The dismal numbers are not just skewed by widespread Republican voter revulsion for Biden. Specifically, among Independent voters in this key battleground state, only 13% of Arizona non-partisans “strongly approve” of Biden on the economy vs. a whopping 48% of Independents who “strongly disapprove” of Biden.

Moreover, the sample canvassed in our survey includes a near dead-even split on presidential preference, with 40% of respondents saying they voted for Biden in 2020 vs. 39% for Trump.

So, in the key swing states of America, our rolling surveys suggest that the Wall Street Journal team is directionally correct, i.e. they have correctly captured the effusively negative trend for confidence. But regarding the severity of the crisis, the depths of the doldrums, the Journal is not nearly negative enough.

So, how did we get into this quagmire of national depression…and how do we get out?

The quick answer to the first point involves an economic system created by the globalist statists for their own self-aggrandizement. A powerful cabal of the permanent political class fused with big business has pursued winner-take-all policies that concentrate power, reward giant multinationals, and accommodate the Chinese Communist Party.

But this corrupt construct crushes Main St. enterprises and American workers.

Concurrent with this economic harm inflicted upon salt-of-the-earth Americans, this unholy alliance of oligarchs and radical leftist politicians robs our republic of national purpose. This new ruling class mocks patriotism, indoctrinates our young with toxic secular humanist propaganda, and openly hates America’s founding and historic ideals.

Given this scenario of financial angst and cultural rot, no wonder Americans grow depressed!

But there is a way out -- though one that involves difficult choices.

For starters, we must rein-in the exorbitant borrowing and spending that crushes American prosperity through biting inflation, the cruelest tax of all on citizens of modest means. In addition, border security needs to become a national priority. Restoring the sovereignty that Biden vaporized and expelling the trespassers he welcomes will protect homeland streets – and citizens’ paychecks.

The on-shoring of production back to America can become a reality through proper incentives like again unleashing American energy prowess and eliminating stifling regulatory hurdles. But punishments must also threaten conglomerates that attempt to reap the benefits of domiciling in America while shifting production overseas.

Into 2024, the political movement that advocates strenuously for economic populism and cultural conservatism will not only win elections, but also usher in a restoration of American confidence.

Let us recognize the seriousness of the crisis we face, and then resolve to fixing the mess using the kind of true grit that marks us as Americans.