Great news America...

According to the latest poll from Gallup, you not been this 'satisfied' since September 2005 - which was right after Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic damage along the Gulf Coast, California Senate passed the first bill to allow gay marriage, Israeli troops infamously shoot dead a Palestinian teenager, and perhaps most ironically - North Korea agrees to drop all nuclear weapons programs and return "at an early date" to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

However, before you celebrate your aggregate exuberance, the percentage of Americans that are actually satisfied - albeit a 12 year high - was just 38%!

As Gallup notes, satisfaction with the nation is now back to the historical average of 37% for this trend, which was first measured in 1979, but is far below the majority levels reached in the economic boom times of the mid-1980s and late 1990s.

But, while Republicans and Independents saw a 14pt and 11pts increase in satisfaction in the last 6 months, Democrats' satisfaction was unchanged at just 13%.

And as "satisfaction" pushes higher, President Trump's approval rating is back at it highest of his presidency...



Gallup concludes by noting that though the vast majority of Americans have expressed pride in their country in polls stretching back more than 30 years, their pride has not meant they were satisfied with the way things were going. This has been especially true during times of economic duress -- though measuring the public's satisfaction with the nation encompasses far more than economics.

Now, at the midpoint of 2018, as the United States continues to enjoy a nine-year-long economic expansion, the number of Americans finding satisfaction in the country's direction is on the rise. This reflects more than a growing comfort with Donald Trump as president; growth in satisfaction has outstripped growth in Trump's approval rating. And it is more than economic good news -- the percentage satisfied has risen more over the past two months than the percentage who think the economy is in good shape or the percentage who think it's a good time to find a quality job.

As the nation moves toward November's midterm elections, as the Mueller investigation continues to unfold, as Trump continues to surprise both friends and foes with his actions, there are a multitude of possibilities for news that could affect satisfaction significantly in either direction.