A slim majority of Americans think politics will improve over the next decade. Poll: 77% say D.C. hurting the nation

More than three-quarters of Americans believe the way politics works in Washington, D.C., is actively harming the country, according to a new poll.

Democrats, Republicans and independents all believe politics is causing “serious harm to the country,” according to the Gallup Poll on Monday. The belief is most widespread among the GOP, where 87 percent of Americans believe politics is hurting the United States. Seventy-nine percent of independents and 68 percent of Democrats believe the same. Only 19 percent think the D.C. politics isn’t having a serious effect on the country.


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The results that 77 percent see serious harm from the Capitol aren’t surprising — Americans have consistently given Congress approval ratings below 20 percent, and only 23 percent had positive feelings about the federal government in an August poll.

But a slim majority of Americans — 52 percent — think politics will improve over the next decade. Forty-five percent are pessimistic about such changes. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats are optimistic about politics improving, compared with just 47 percent of independents and 44 percent of Republicans. A majority of Republicans — 56 percent — are pessimistic.

Younger generations are also more optimistic than their elders, with 55 percent of those between the ages of 18 to 29 and of those between the ages of 30 and 49 coming in as optimistic.

The poll of 1,025 adults was conducted Dec. 14 to Dec. 17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.