Snitz explains: Blacks afraid of police? GOP lifts national mood? Men being lame?

Technically, these results are compiled by Gallup but I identify as a polling organization.

GOP Enthusiasm Lifts National Mood

The Data: A moderately elevated 26% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while satisfaction with the country's direction has surged to 38%. This continues a pattern of higher 2025 readings, the highest seen since early 2021.

More Context: Both figures are buoyed by Republican sentiments: 49% of Republicans approve of the GOP-led Congress, and 79% are satisfied with the state of the country — near record-high satisfaction for the party. In contrast, just 7% of Democrats approve of Congress, and 4% are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S.

The Data: In May, 26% of Americans cited the government or poor leadership as the nation's most important problem, ahead of economic concerns like inflation (8%) and the economy in general (16%).

Partisan Divides: Forty-three percent of Democrats name the government as the top problem facing the country, while 25% of Republicans point to immigration. The economy is mentioned equally by older and younger Americans, but younger adults are more likely to call out inflation as the United States' most important problem.

The Data: One in four U.S. men between the ages of 15 and 34 (25%) say they felt lonely a lot of the previous day — 10 percentage points higher than the OECD median for that group.

More Context: While loneliness among most U.S. subgroups aligns with their counterparts across the OECD, the 25% figure for young U.S. men is an outlier. Young American men are also more likely than young American women to report feeling lonely.

The Data: Majorities of all Americans across racial subgroups have positive views of their local police. This includes having confidence in them, feeling satisfied with the relationship between the police and their community, believing local police treat people like them fairly, and expecting that the police would treat them with courtesy and respect if they were to have an interaction. Still, Black adults are less likely than White adults and Americans in general to be upbeat about these aspects of police relations.

Correlation With Age: Americans' views on police relations differ by age, with older adults more positive than younger adults. This pattern is also evident across racial subgroups. As a result, young Black adults are the least positive of all racial/age groups.