Americans demonstrate strong confidence in the nation’s innovative capabilities while expressing skepticism about government’s effectiveness in solving key challenges, according to a recent survey.
The findings reveal that 65% of registered voters are optimistic about American-led innovation in sectors including medicine, energy, and artificial intelligence, with notable partisan variations: 81% of Republicans, 59% of Democrats, and 57% of Independents share this optimism.
“Americans are really optimistic about our future, which isn’t something that you would get just by looking at the media and kind of day-to-day portrayals of where Americans are,” Dan Rothschild, director of the Center for Civics, Education, and Opportunity at the Reagan Institute, told FOX Business. He noted that Gen Z respondents displayed a 50-point net positive rating on American science and technology’s ability to build a better future.
The survey highlights concerns about construction barriers, finding that 54% of respondents believe it’s too difficult to build homes in their communities, compared to 36% who see it as appropriate and 9% who think it’s too easy.
Opinions vary on infrastructure projects: 48% view road and highway construction difficulty as appropriate, while 44% find it too challenging, and only 8% consider it too easy. Manufacturing facilities show similar patterns, with 45% finding it about right, 43% too difficult, and 11% too easy.
Rothschild observed, “I was positively impressed by how much Americans want to build. The vast majority of Americans believe that it is either too hard to build one or more of those types of facilities or that it’s just about right. Nobody believes, effectively, that we’re building too much.”
The survey also examined views on former President Ronald Reagan’s economic policies, revealing a strong plurality believes they were beneficial for the country. Overall, 47% said Reagan’s policies were good for America versus 31% who said they weren’t, with significant partisan divides: Republicans favored Reagan’s approach by a 78% to 4% margin, while Democrats leaned negatively at 52% to 24%.
Regarding Reagan’s famous declaration that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” 81% of registered voters agreed this statement remains true today, including 93% of Republicans, 82% of Independents, and 69% of Democrats.
Rothschild interpreted this as “a vote of confidence in the American people, in American business, in American civic society – and not a vote of confidence in politicians to fix what’s wrong with America.”