Most American voters believe Islamic terrorists will strike the U.S.
soon. A Fox News national poll released Sunday also finds Democrats and
Republicans united against President Obama’s plan to accept Syrian
refugees -- as most voters think at least one will be a terrorist who
will launch a successful attack here.
Here are five findings on the war against terrorism. Voters feel:
-- The U.S. is at war with radical Islam, and Democrats who refuse to call the enemy by that name are doing the wrong thing.
-- Obama has not fought the war against ISIS aggressively enough, and that war is going badly.
-- Terrorism is now the top problem facing the country, and an attack is likely soon.
-- Bringing Syrian refugees into the U.S. is a bad idea, and a religious test would be shameful.
-- Closing Gitmo is wrong, and Obama should not side step Congress to do so.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
Here are the details behind those findings:
Today 66 percent consider the country “at war” with radical Islam, up from 56 percent in January.
The poll asks about Democratic presidential
candidates rejecting terms like radical Islam and Islamic terrorists to
describe those who committed the Paris attacks. Fifty-six percent think
they are doing the wrong thing by refusing to identify clearly the
nature of the threat. Thirty-three percent feel Democrats are doing the
right thing by being careful not to blame Muslim ideology.
More than 6 in 10 say the U.S. fight against ISIS is
going badly (63 percent). At the same time, voters continue to oppose
sending a “significant” number of U.S. ground troops to fight the
extremists (42 percent favor vs. 51 percent oppose). However,
opposition is decreasing; it was 37 percent in favor vs. 57 percent
opposed in June.
While 26 percent think the actions of the Obama
administration have been “about right” in trying to stop ISIS, most --
65 percent -- say Obama hasn’t been aggressive enough. That includes 39
percent of Democrats, 61 percent of independents and 91 percent of
Republicans.
The current situation has pushed the president’s job
rating to a low point for the year. Forty percent of voters approve of
the job Obama is doing, while 54 percent disapprove. It was 45-50
percent earlier this month. Some of the decline comes from Democrats: 78
percent approve now, down from 84 percent (Nov. 1-3, 2015). Overall,
Obama’s worst rating was 38 approve vs. 56 disapprove in September
2014.
In the wake of the Paris attacks, terrorism now tops
the economy as the most important issue facing the country. Twenty-four
percent of voters say terrorism, up from 11 percent in August.
Currently 21 percent say the economy is the top issue, down from 30
percent this summer. There’s a substantial gap before foreign policy (7
percent), health care (7 percent), immigration (7 percent) and the
deficit (5 percent) are mentioned. Only three percent say climate
change is the priority.
Fifty-six percent think it is “very” likely Islamic
terrorists will try to attack the United States soon, up from 50 percent
who felt that way in January.
Two-thirds of voters -- and nearly half of Democrats
-- oppose the administration’s plan for the U.S. to take in 10,000
Syrian refugees over the next year, and 77 percent think it’s likely at
least one of those coming in through this process will be a terrorist
who will “succeed in carrying out an attack on U.S. soil.”
Obama says it’s shameful to have a religious test for
bringing Syrian refugees into the country -- and 64 percent agree with
him. Fewer than one in four says it makes sense to only allow Syrian
refugees who are Christian to come to the U.S. (23 percent).
Views by Party
Forty-nine percent of Democrats join majorities of
independents (67 percent) and Republicans (86 percent) in opposing
Obama’s plan to bring Syrian refugees into the U.S.
By an overwhelming 91-8 percent margin, Republicans
think it’s likely a terrorist will sneak in as a refugee and carry out
an attack. Democrats agree that’s a likely scenario -- just by a
smaller 62-35 percent margin.
Republicans (37 percent) are nearly four times as
likely as Democrats (10 percent) to think a religious test for Syrian
refugees makes sense. Even so, a plurality of Republicans (49 percent)
agrees with the large majority of Democrats (81 percent) who feel it’s a
shameful idea.
Guantanamo Bay
Two days after the Paris attacks, the White House
announced the transfer of five Guantanamo Bay detainees to the
government of the United Arab Emirates. That’s part of the Obama
administration’s ongoing plan to close the facility -- a plan that by a
two-to-one margin voters think is the wrong course of action (59-31
percent).
Even more voters, 73 percent, oppose Obama bypassing
Congress to close the detention center by executive action. That’s
widely seen as the only way he could close Gitmo given lawmakers’
opposition.
While a plurality of Democrats thinks closing Gitmo
is the right thing to do (48 percent), a slim majority opposes Obama
going around Congress to do it (53 percent).
Most say they would not be willing to have Gitmo
detainees moved to a prison in their state (68 percent), however, nearly
3 in 10 say they would be (28 percent).
The Fox News poll is based on live telephone
interviews (landline and cellphone) with 1,016 randomly chosen
registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction
of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R)
from Nov. 16-19, 2015. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or
minus three percentage points for all registered voters.
