Each party’s voters blame the other party for the shutdown, surprising no one

Now that the government has reopened from its three-day shutdown, NBC News and Survey Monkey asked the public to weigh in on their perception of what went down on the Senate floor.

For starters: People are opposed to shutdowns in general. A full 81 percent of the 3,450 American adults surveyed said it was unacceptable for the president or members of Congress to threaten a shutdown in order to achieve their goals.

When it came to casting blame for the shutdown, people were more divided. Republicans faulted Democrats, and Democrats faulted Republicans. Fully 85 percent of those who identify as Republicans or lean conservative blamed Democrats in Congress for the shutdown. Meanwhile, 62 percent of Democrats and those who lean liberal blamed President Trump, and one-third blamed the Republican Party in Congress.

Nearly half of independents blamed Trump as well. Those who did not were more likely to blame Congressional Democrats than Congressional Republicans.

Speaking of the president, Americans were overall displeased with how he handled the standoff, with 60 percent reporting that he didn’t show strong leadership. Sixty-eight percent of independents were also unsatisfied with his leadership.

Voters’ feelings on Trump might be significant as the government faces another shutdown in three weeks when funding again runs out (Congress only passed a resolution to keep working on a deal, not an actual deal).

As Andrew Prokop explained, Trump’s approval rating had actually gone up by a few points in the month before the shutdown, and Republicans were hoping it would continue rising in the months leading up to the midterms.

With Congress working toward a more permanent solution, it’s also helpful to consider how the public feels about what the standoff centered on: the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

A rallying cry for Democratic senators during the shutdown was that most Americans are in favor of helping DREAMers, undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. This most recent survey substantiates that claim, with 66 percent of all Americans (and 42 percent of Republicans) saying they support the Obama-era program.

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