New Marist poll: 62 percent say state of union is not strong

Ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address next week, a new poll finds that a majority of Americans do not think the state of the country is strong.

More than 60 percent of people think the state of the union is not strong, according to a new Marist poll. The negative rating comes as Congress settles in from the chaos of the historic fight over the Speaker election, the current and former president dealing with scandals around classified documents and lawmakers facing down a debt limit crisis.

An overwhelming majority of independent voters and Republicans hold a negative opinion of the state of the country, with 72 percent of independents and 69 percent of Republicans believing that it is not very strong or not strong at all, according to the Marist poll of 1,257 people, which had a margin of error of 3.6 percent. 

Democrats were nearly evenly divided on the question, with 49 percent saying it is very strong or strong and 48 percent saying it is not very strong or not strong at all.

Despite the negative overall view from Americans, Biden’s approval rating has remained steady at about 42 percent since December, according to the poll.

Respondents pointed to partisan extremism in both parties as a problem in the U.S. A 52 percent majority of respondents said that extremism in the Republican party is an issue, while a 46 percent plurality said it was an issue in the Democratic party.