Gallup Poll Confirms Americans Are Dissatisfied as Midterm Elections Approach

(May 20) -- The Dalai Lama thinks the world is getting happier, but Gallup pollsters say they've never seen Americans as grumpy in a midterm election year as they are now.

Gallup asks people across the U.S. every month if they're satisfied with the way things are going in the country. So far this year, an average of only 23 percent have said they're satisfied. That's the lowest rating in a midterm year since the polling began three decades ago.

This helps explain the success of Washington outsiders in recent primary elections and shows that Democrats are "clearly vulnerable" to losing control of Congress this year, according to an analysis by Gallup's Jeffrey M. Jones. Low satisfaction during a midterm election usually means a big shift in the balance of power on Capitol Hill, as happened in 1982, 1994 and 2006.

Satisfaction among Democrats rose a bit after President Barack Obama signed health care reform into law, but independents showed little change and Republicans were the least satisfied. Separately, Gallup found that conservatives are far more enthusiastic than anyone else about voting in November's congressional elections.

This lack of satisfaction is nothing new. It's been below the historical average of 40 percent since mid-2005. The highest satisfaction rating Gallup ever recorded was 71 percent in early 1999, when the dot-com bubble had not yet burst and the Dow Jones industrial average was approaching the mythical 10,000 mark. The all-time low was 7 percent in October 2008, just before Obama was elected president.

The chart below shows the average satisfaction rating for every midterm election year since 1982. Click here to see detailed monthly data going back to 1979.

Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/128120/Satisfaction-Historically-Low-Midterm-Year.aspx