President Trump and other conservatives certainly love pushing the narrative that reopening America is what the American people want, but a recent poll shows that narrative is far from truthful. Instead, the poll shows that a strong majority of Americans oppose the reopening of non-essential businesses and would be uncomfortable patronizing those businesses regardless of their state’s current restrictions.
The Washington Post reports that the poll conducted by the University of Maryland shows that people largely oppose the reopening of businesses like restaurants, gyms and movie theaters. Researchers for the Washington Post-University of Maryland poll reached out to a “random national sample” of 1,005 adults across party lines and asked them how they feel about the reopening of the following businesses: gun stores, dine-in restaurants, nail salons, barbershops and hair salons, retail stores, gyms, golf courses and movie theaters. According to the survey’s findings, grocery stores are pretty much the only establishment most people feel comfortable patronizing—which is understandable considering peoples’ need to eat home-cooked meals, bathe with soap and wipe themselves regularly.
Gyms, restaurants, salons and movie theaters are among the businesses people most oppose reopening and feel the least comfortable patronizing during the pandemic.
From the Post:
The most significant opposition is to reopening movie theaters, with 82 percent of Americans saying they should not be allowed to open up in their state. There is also broad opposition to reopening gyms (78 percent opposed), dine-in restaurants and nail salons (both with 74 percent opposed).
Gun stores are next, with 70 percent saying they should not be reopened, followed by barbershops and hair salons (69 percent opposed) and retail shops such as clothing stores (66 percent opposed) and golf courses (59 percent opposed).
Aside from assessing people’s comfort level with these businesses reopening, the poll also asked citizens whether they are still worried about being infected by the coronavirus—to which 63 percent responded that they are—and what they thought about the jobs their elected officials and healthcare officials are doing in response to the pandemic.
Trump’s ratings are 44 percent positive and 56 percent negative, in line with where he was two weeks ago and only slightly worse than a week ago. Governors earn positive marks from 75 percent of Americans, about the same as a week ago. Partisan differences remain sizable, with nearly 8 in 10 Republicans but just about 2 in 10 Democrats rating Trump positively. In contrast, governors earn big positive majorities across the parties.
Americans also overwhelmingly approve of the way federal public health scientists, including Anthony S. Fauci, have dealt with the challenges from the coronavirus. Fauci’s positive rating stands at 74 percent. He maintains wide bipartisan appeal, winning positive marks from more than two-thirds of Republicans and independents, and nearly 9 in 10 Democrats. Public health scientists in the federal government overall are rated 71 percent positive.
So, basically, the poll says Americans ain’t ready and its findings indicate that conservative groups and politicians need to stop pretending that their “reopen America” campaign unquestionably falls in line with the will of the people. In the end, what the people want is to be in good health.