Increased satisfaction among blacks since 2008 is not surprising given the fact that the great majority of blacks -- 82% in the latest poll -- identify themselves as Democrats or as leaning to the Democratic Party. Partisans typically show greater satisfaction with the direction of the country when the sitting president is a member of their political party. This is evident in Gallup's U.S. Satisfaction trend since 2001.
Across this period, the pattern of satisfaction among Democrats is very similar to that seen among blacks, with declining satisfaction through much of George W. Bush's presidency, and the rebound in 2009. Satisfaction also fell among Republicans during Bush's second term, although it remained substantially higher than that among Democrats or independents. Now, with Obama in the White House, Republican satisfaction is at 10%, well below the other two groups' satisfaction.
Despite the strong influence of party affiliation, it seems that more than just partisanship explains the current level of U.S. satisfaction among blacks, as black Democrats have shown a greater increase in satisfaction over the past year than white Democrats. Today, 38% of white Democrats say they are satisfied with the direction of the country, up from 5% in June/July 2008 -- a 33-point gain. By contrast, 51% of black Democrats today are satisfied, up from 7% -- a 44-point gain. (There are too few black Republicans to enable the same trend analysis by race for Republicans.)
The latest results are from an Oct. 16-19 USA Today/Gallup poll, which included an oversample of blacks, thus providing a reliable basis for estimating the views of this segment of Americans. The historical comparisons are to Gallup's annual Minority Rights and Relations surveys from 2001 through 2008, which also included black oversamples. Source: Gallup
