Adults in America have grown weary and wary of modern-era divided government failing to get things done and lack trust either party will be able to do anything about the congressional gridlock, according to a new CNN poll released Sunday.
A record-high majority of Americans (58%) say government should do more to solve the nation’s problems, a record that extends the entirety of the 30-year history of CNN polling.
There are razor-thin margins in the House and Senate – this time with a slight Republican edge – but neither party can get things done, more than 40% say in the CNN poll.
The partisan divide in Congress is as apparent as the divide among American adults, with an overwhelming 81% majority seeing clear differences between the parties.
There has been a steady decline of those seeing the parties as “pretty much the same,” falling to 18% now versus 28% in 2023 and around 33% in CNN and Gallup polling dating back to 2002, according to CNN.
While the Democrats in Congress unilaterally vote against Republicans, Democrats in America see their party with far less unanimity. Republicans are far more likely to see their party leaders as “strong” (40%) than Democrats (a mere 16%), according to the poll.
Republicans are also nearly twice more likely to see their party as able to get things done (36%), compared to just 19% for Democrats.
Also, Republicans see their party as a change agent (32%) more than Democrats (25%).
Among independents in the poll:
- 76% say neither party has strong leaders or can get things done.
- 72% say neither party is the party of change.
The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from May 5-26 among 2,539 adults nationwide, and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.