Republicans insist that everything under President Obama is awful and terrible and getting worse. Their nominee for the presidency has based his entire candidacy on the idea that America is a complete trianwreck and only he  alone  can fix things.But when you ask actual Americans about what their lives are like after eight years of Barack Obama being president, a completely different message emerges. Gallup did just that, in a survey of over 100,000 people, and almost completely across the board people feel better off than they did before.In 2008, fewer than half of Americans said their life was good enough to be considered  thriving,  according to Gallup. But that s changed:  The 55.4% who are thriving so far in 2016 is on pace to be the highest recorded in the nine years Gallup and Healthways have tracked it,  according to the report.The report even has findings that obliterate Donald Trump s constant harping that black Americans are living lives of complete desperation inside crack-destroyed inner city ghettos. The percentages of U.S. whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians who are thriving have all increased during the Obama era,  Gallup notes. The percentage of blacks thriving has risen by about 6 points, as has the percentage of whites and Hispanics. Asian thriving has risen by about 10 points since 2008.It isn t magic or left wing propaganda. People simply feel better off and more optimistic, and it isn t a coincidence that this change has occurred between the presidency of a conservative Republican and a progressive Democrat.As a result, President Obama s approval rating has gone over 50 percent and reports are now emerging that Trump is having trouble convincing voters in key states that they need to turn the page from Obama because people are feeling positive about the situation in America.Ignore the hype and noise of the right, check out the data and you ll learn how people really feel.Featured image via Flickr