What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending August 18, 2018

The Declaration of Independence says that governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed, but few voters think the American government today has the consent of its governed. 

However, voters—and Republicans specifically—have more faith these days that someone in Washington represents them.

As the nation gears up for midterm elections, half of voters say they’ve voted independent and think the nation would benefit from a strong third party. 

Republicans have more allegiance to their political party than Democrats. 

But Democrats continue to lead Republicans on the latest Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot, and after two weeks of a tightening race, Democrats have expanded their lead.

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The jury was in its second day of deliberation Friday in the bank and tax fraud trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of “links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.”

Democrats want President Trump to sit down for an interview with Mueller’s investigative team; Republicans don’t. But both sides agree that a Trump interview is unlikely to bring Mueller’s probe to a close.

Still under asylum in Russia, it’s been five years since Edward Snowden exposed the U.S. government’s surveillance of millions of innocent Americans in the name of national security, and voters still think he falls somewhere in between the lines of hero and traitor, though they still want him tried for treason.

Despite recent criticism of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), more Americans these days like the TSA and the airline security process.

Voters are now even more critical of the so-called “antifa” protesters who surfaced again this past weekend in Charlottesville and Washington, DC and continue to think they’re chiefly interested in causing trouble.

Of course, there are bigger problems.

California Governor Jerry Brown blamed the spreading California wildfires on climate change, something voters still consider a serious issue heading into the midterms. And they think humans are to blame.

Like Trump and Brown, voters disagree on the cause of the wildfires raging in northern California, but most think this is a worse season for fires than usual.

In other surveys last week:

-- A new study has determined that smoking electronic cigarettes, or “vaping,” may be more harmful than originally thought, something Americans have worried about for years, but half think the risk is about the same for both.

-- It’s back-to-school time again, and parents are expecting to open their wallets wider this year to prepare.

-- Forty-three percent (43%) of voters now think the country is heading in the right direction.

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