According to Axios reporting on a new Gallup poll, seventy-seven percent of Americans say the nation's founders would be disappointed by the country today—the highest level of disappointment Gallup has ever recorded. That's a stark contrast to two thousand and one, when most Americans believed the founders would be pleased. Just nineteen percent think the founders would be satisfied today, down from twenty-seven percent in twenty thirteen. There's a partisan gap—Republicans are somewhat more likely to think the founders would approve than Democrats—but here's the twist: that divide flips depending on who holds the White House, suggesting it's less about ideology and more about political power. There's a thin silver lining. Sixty-nine percent of Americans still believe the country has achieved the founders' ideals at least reasonably well. But that's down from seventy-seven percent in nineteen seventy-six and eighty-four percent in twenty oh-two. Younger voters are even more skeptical—only eight percent say the nation has succeeded greatly.

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