Record high share of Americans want government to do more to solve problems

A majority of Americans now believe the government should do more to solve the nation's problems — a record high, according to Gallup.

The increased push for greater government involvement is coming from Democrats and independents, while Republicans' view on government intervention in our problems has remained flat.

What's the data?

With the coronavirus creating health concerns, the pandemic's impacts on the economy, racial unrest, and growing concerns about the integrity of the next election, people are looking to the government for solutions more every day.

For the first time in Gallup's polling history on the topic, more than half (54%) of Americans want the government to do more to solve the country's problems. Just 41% of those surveyed said the government is doing too much, the polling outfit reported Monday.

The recent uptick — from 47% in 2019 to 54% today — is also the first time those supporting increased government intervention outnumbered those opposing it since 2001 after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Broken down by party, it's clear that Democrats and independents are responsible for the massive growth in the call for increased government involvement in our lives: 83% of Democrats (up from 70% in 2019) and 56% of independents (up from 46% in 2019) support the bigger-government position. Just 22% of Republicans (down from 24% in 2019) hold that same view.

Should government promote traditional values?

Gallup's Monday report also showed that while the public's desire for government involvement in solving problems has grown, backing for the government promoting traditional values has remained basically flat.

Just 47% of Americans said the U.S. government should promote traditional values, while 50% said the government should not favor any values.

The partisan breakdown shows that while Republicans' calls for more government promotion of traditional values have grown since last year, that increase has been countered by a drop among independents and Democrats.

In 2019, 69% of Republicans wanted the government to push traditional values. Today, 74% of Republicans feel that way. For independents, the share dropped from 49% in 2019 to 42% today. And among Democrats, the number dropped from 31% last year to 29%.