There’s been a change in what voters want from Washington.
The latest Fox News survey asks which of two messages voters would send to the federal government: "lend me a hand" or "leave me alone." A majority of 52% would ask Washington to "lend me a hand," up from 44% in 2021. The 8-point increase comes mostly from a 19-point jump among Republicans, as views among Democrats held steady.
Still, Democrats (69%) are much more likely than Republicans (38%) to say lend me a hand.
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Last year, 47% told the government to "leave me alone." Now, that’s 43%.
More than twice as many Republicans (60%) as Democrats (26%) want the government to leave them alone.
Among independents, views are more divided: 48% lend me a hand vs. 44% leave me alone.
The shift toward wanting a hand-up comes as large majorities rate economic conditions negatively (78%), say the economy is getting worse (73%) -- and that they’ve had to cut back on spending to afford necessities (71%).
Meanwhile, more than half think the country is becoming more socialist, but 6 in 10 say such a move would be a bad thing.
By a 54-38% margin, voters say the U.S. is currently moving away from capitalism and more toward socialism.
Nearly twice as many think such a transition would be a bad thing (60%) rather than a good thing (32%). Among Democrats, 53% think a move toward socialism would be good.
Conducted October 9-12, 2022, under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,206 registered voters nationwide who were randomly selected from a national voter file and spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones. The total sample has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
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Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.
