A recent poll found more Texans felt the country was headed in the wrong direction, according to the Texas Politics Project, a unit of the College of Liberal Arts at the University.
Of those surveyed, 71% of Texans responded the country is on the wrong track, according to the October poll. Only one-fifth felt things are headed in the right direction.
“I think that’s because of polarization honestly,” government and sociology sophomore Ellie Nicholson said. “As society is becoming more divided, no matter what, everybody’s receiving a negative news feed.”
According to the poll, nearly 80% of Democrats feel the Republican Party is not welcoming to people like themselves. Nearly the same percentage of Republicans felt the same about the Democratic Party.
“There needs to be a little more of an acceptance for conservative voices on campus,” government freshman Patrick Capesius said.
Additionally, the gap between Republican and Democratic sentiments on the same topics continues to grow.
When asked whether corporations should take a stance on political issues, three-fourths of Republican voters felt it was a bad idea, according to a similar September poll from the project. Only 34% of Democrats felt the same.
Republicans felt corporations were responding too much in areas such as abortion access, climate change, racial discrimination and LGBTQ+ rights. Conversely, Democrats felt corporations were doing too little in those same areas.
“It’s a lot of fatigue,” Capesius said. “People are tired. There’s been so much political unrest in the last couple of years. When they see another company plastering a rainbow on their products, people are like … ‘Is this just you trying to capitalize on people pushing for social change?’”
The Texas Politics Project, which conducts polls every other month, was founded in 2002 to provide voters with a nonpartisan public resource, said James Henson, executive director of the project.
The project aimed to bolster student interest in politics and aid Texans “in becoming more thoughtful and effective participants in their government,” according to their website.
“It’s harder and harder in the current media environment to find nonpartisan information about politics and government,” Henson said. “That’s our reason for being in many ways: to provide good information for people to make their own decisions about politics and government.”
