Poll: More Americans Think Founders Would Consider U.S. a Failure Than a Success, Worse Now Than Under Trump

Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights July 4, 2001 (Alex Wong, Getty Images)

A new finds that only about 1 in 3 Americans believe the Founding Fathers would consider the nation they founded to be a success on this Fourth of July weekend, 245 year later.

In fact, 41% believe the Founders would consider the nation a failure.

In the annual Fourth of July poll from Rasmussen, asked whether the Founding Fathers would consider the United States as it is today to be a success or failure, only 34% of adults answered that it would be considered a success by the likes of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson.

Exact Question polled: If the Founding Fathers came back today, would they consider the United States a success or a failure?

A year ago, during President Donald Trump‘s last year in office and as a pandemic was underway, the result was 6 points higher, at 40% who said the Founders would consider the nation a success.

This year, the forty find failure, as 41% of adults chose that option to represent how the Founders would feel about the Republic they forged.

In the poll, 25% were unsure.

Rasmussen notes that the 41% is still down from a high in 2013 of a stunning 49% who selected “failure” in 2013.

The survey of 1,000 U.S. American Adults was conducted on June 28-29, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Also in the poll, 74% correctly identified the Fourth of July as a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The “unsure” and those who incorrectly selected the ratification of the Constitution as the event commemorated were split at 13% each.

Read the full summary of the survey from Rasmussen here.