What should US President Joe Biden focus on during his first 100 days in office?How do people feel policy changes should be enacted?
These are the questions that the survey company Invisibly, using their “Realtime Research” tool, asked in a poll conducted in January 2021.
What stood out of the survey was that the great majority of people ¬– up to 75% – support the use of executive orders to enact policy, noting that the answer was very much influenced by the political affiliation of the respondent, as 38% of Democrats were in favor, compared to only 9% of Republicans.
Moreover, 63% of people would ideally like to see policy issues be resolved using a mix of executive orders and legislation approved by both chambers of Congress.
Regarding Biden's first 100 days in office, 68% want the newly elected American president to focus on the coronavirus pandemic, while only 13% said their focus was climate change, followed by 11% desiring social justice reform and 7% focused on foreign affairs.
According to the survey it seems that Democrats and independents in general were much more in favor of using executive orders, and particular when it comes to social justice issues and policy change.
Indeed, 43% of independents were in favor of using executive orders to make policy change for climate change, compared to only 25% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans.
The one thing Democrats, independents and Republicans seem to agree on is foreign affairs executive orders, with almost all supporting at 19%.
According to the poll, it can also be noticed that age and socioeconomic status also play a role in what people feel it’s okay to enact executive orders on. Up to 80% of Gen Z (millennials) strongly support social justice reform, compared with only 5% of those 55 and older.