Americans call closure, called to be the longest in history, "embarrassing": NPR

Three-quarters of Americans believe that the government's closure, the longest of all periods in American history, is "embarrassing for the country," including a majority of Republicans, according to a new NPR poll / Ipsos.

If no agreement is reached before midnight Friday, this partial stop will be the longest of all time. From late 1995 to early 1996, the government was closed for 21 days. Friday is the 21st day of this current stop. Neither side seems ready to move, and this and other polls make Democrats feel that they have the upper hand.

And they are right to feel that way – about 7 out of 10 in the NPR / Ipsos poll also indicate that government closure will hurt the country, that it will hurt the economy and that Congress should pass a bill to reopen it now while the budget talks continue. Only 3 out of 10 think the government should remain closed until there is funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border.

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A Reuters / Ipsos poll released on Tuesday revealed that 51 percent of Americans said Trump "deserved the most blame", up 4 points from late December 2018 in the surrounding area. from the beginning of the closure. A YouGov poll released this week found that 50 percent of respondents blamed Trump, up 4 points from late December

. Only 10 percent of Americans said the president's speech brought the country closer to ending the government's closure. (Nearly 4 out of 10 said they did not watch or even follow the president's speech.)

And not much, if someone, beyond its base, declare that its speech convinced them of the existence of one " crisis "on the southern border of the United States. In total, only 38% of Americans said his speech had convinced them of a border crisis and only about one-third of those polled said his speech convinced them of the need for a wall on along the border.

The independents are not with the president on any of these critical points. In a proportion of 50 to 27%, the independents disagreed that the president's speech had convinced them of the need for a wall, and by a margin of 45 to 32%, the independents said that the president's speech had not convinced them of a crisis at the border. Fifty-three percent of independents said that it was never acceptable to close the government, like 50% of Democrats. However, only 25% of Republicans said the same thing.

About two-thirds of Republicans said that the president's speech had helped convince them that there was a crisis at the border and the need for a wall.

While Trump is considering re-election, his base is solidly behind him. Immigration and the wall were at the center of the debates that mobilized this support. Democrats, however, believe that while the president has managed to win, in part, his radical immigration stance, he has also been the subject of litigation in the mid-term elections of 2018 – when the Democrats have taken over Parliament.

One of the reasons the closure could last is that few people say they are directly affected by the closing:

• only 10 per cent say that any one or a member of their immediate family has been put away without permission or are a federal employee or contractor who is currently working without pay
• Only 15% of those surveyed said they could not access government services because of the closure.
• 11% report not being able to visit a national park or public facility due to closure
• Sixty-five percent said that they and their families had not not been affected.

But that does not mean that Americans are not understanding federal employees – 56% do not think that federal employees should work without pay so that public services remain operational, and 83% think they should come back to pay for the time they work. Two-thirds even think that federal contractors should recover their salary. (Congress should pass legislation that would pay federal employees once the closure is over and Trump should sign.)

Also, when asked what they thought about the closure, The most common responses were that it was unfair to workers, that it was wrong and that too much worked without pay.

The fact that the leaders of this confrontation do not like anything, it is that the leaders of this confrontation are not well perceived:

• President Trump: 42% favorable, 52% unfavorable [19659030] Nancy Pelosi, President of the Democratic Chamber, 39 people in favor, 39% in favor (40% do not know): 39% in favor.
• The Republican majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky .: 27% favorable, 40% unfavorable (33% do not know)

The survey was conducted by Ipsos from 9 to January 10 with online interviews of 1,003 adults. Its credibility interval is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.