Maybe I&#x27;m just too skeptical of these types of stories coming from generic polling, but I will say that I don&#x27;t have a high degree of confidence in polling done by random phone calls (the CNN&#x2F;ORC poll listed says that on page 14 [1]).  My wife frequently answers the political poll questions when people call, in part because she feels sorry for the poller.  Answering those calls can take 15-30 minutes.  So you&#x27;re depending on the results of people who have 15-30 minutes to answer 35 questions about the government.  I feel like there&#x27;s a selection bias at work there already, and you&#x27;re assuming that people will give thoughtful answers to the questions, that the order of questions doesn&#x27;t affect responses, etc, etc, etc.  You&#x27;re depending on 1018 people who actually may not be statistically relevant, since America is a big, big country, to drive your thinking on that country.<p>Plus, would the responses to the surveys be different if the word &#x27;disappointed&#x27; was used instead of angry?  And would the perception of the responses be different?<p>Secondarily, and this is far more anecdotal, but I am friends with a fairly wide swath of people via social media, from conservatives to libertarians to liberals to progressives.  The key takeaway that I have from watching all of their posting and all of their interactions is that people are angry at others.  And people have always been easily angered by others, it&#x27;s just that the modern American landscape allows for a) easier access to others and b) easier access to well-written, rational condemnation of others than can be easily shared.  But reading through my feed,<p>Maybe Americans aren&#x27;t actually angry, but since it&#x27;s easier to construct understandable stories using language like anger, Americans feel like they should be angry?<p>[1]<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;edition.cnn.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;29&#x2F;politics&#x2F;cnn-orc-poll-full-results-obama-approval&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;edition.cnn.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;29&#x2F;politics&#x2F;cnn-orc-poll-full...</a>