March 14 (Bloomberg) — How gloomy Americans are about the direction of the country and President George W. Bush’s leadership depends on how much money they make.

Twenty-three percent of all Americans said the country is on the right track, a 15-year low, according to a new Bloomberg poll. Among those with higher incomes, 43 percent said the country is on the right path. Three-fifths of Americans disapproved of the job Bush is doing, compared with 38 percent who approved. Among those with household income higher than $100,000, the gap is smaller, with 53 percent disapproving and 46 percent approving.

“That’s the history of the world and it’s also the history of the United States,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Public opinion “is always very directly related to how well you’re doing and how well you think you’re going to do.”

The March 3-11 survey followed the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s Feb. 27 fall, its worst in four years, and was conducted during a week when Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff was convicted of perjury and a scandal erupted over conditions at the Army’s Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.

In certain areas the differences between the affluent and the general population were particularly sharp. Asked about the impact of free-trade policies, a plurality of all Americans said they have hurt the economy, while a plurality of high earners said they have been beneficial.

Read more at Bloomberg.com

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)

Continuing The Chart Project, this third installment looks at religion in society. In the past month or so, religion has been a hotter topic than usual in the liberal blogosphere. (My own feelings and beliefs regarding religion are pretty irrelevant to this post, but perhaps I-ll get to them at some later point.)

Of course, there is a difference between people who are simply religious and authoritarians with a religious bent. Obviously not all religious conservatives share the extreme authoritarianism that characterizes “the religious right” as a political and social force (and most religious liberals and moderates do not). I imagine most readers of this post will be familiar with the tenor and actions of the religious right in America, and to a lesser degree the authoritarian branch of the religious left in America. If that’s not the case, or a refresher is desired, let me provide some links.
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