More Americans find the Democratic Party’s positions on big issues like climate change, health care and immigration to be “in the mainstream” than Republican stances on those issues, a new WSJ/NBC News poll has found.
On climate change, a majority of Americans — 56 percent — say Democrats’ views are in the mainstream. Only 29 percent say that Republicans’ positions on climate are in the mainstream, and 63 percent say they are “out of the mainstream.”
The results were similar on health care: 56 percent of respondents said Democrats’ positions were in the mainstream (with 38 percent saying no). Forty-one percent said Republicans were in the mainstream, with 52 percent saying they were out of the mainstream.
The Democrats have a seven-point advantage on immigration. Forty-five percent of Americans say the GOP’s policies on immigration are in the mainstream; 50 percent say they’re outside it. Meanwhile, 52 percent of Americans say Democrats’ positions are in the mainstream, while 42 percent disagreed.
On abortion rights, a perennially hot election-year topic, the Republican Party also lags behind. Fifty-one percent of Americans say Democrats’ positions on abortion are mainstream. Only 38 percent say the GOP’s stances on the issue are mainstream.
The poll found that Americans are almost equally split on whose fiscal policy is more mainstream: 47 percent say the Republicans are in the mainstream; 47 percent say they’re outside it. American’s views of the opposite side of the aisle are nearly identical: 46 percent say Democrats are in the mainstream on fiscal policy; 47 percent say they’re not.
The same poll had mixed news for President Trump. It put his approval rating at 46 percent, with 52 percent disapproval.
In terms of the 2020 presidential election, 41 percent of respondents said they would vote for Trump’s re-election, while 48 percent said they would vote for a generic Democratic candidate. That’s a five-point improvement for Trump since mid-December.
