Political Rhetoric Gone Too Far

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

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The voice of the world in numbers

Dec. 9, 2025

Welcome to Front Page, Gallup's indispensable intelligence distilled into five charts that give leaders the insights they need to make their most important decisions.

1. Political Rhetoric Gone Too Far

Stacked Bar Chart: More Americans say parties have gone too far with rhetoric.

The Data: Across the aisle, larger majorities than in the past say both major parties and their supporters have gone too far in using inflammatory language to criticize their political opponents. Sixty-nine percent of Americans say Republicans and their supporters have gone too far, and 60% say the same of Democrats and their supporters.

Shift Since 2011: Criticism of political rhetoric has grown since 2011, rising 16 percentage points for Republicans and nine points for Democrats.

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2. Perceived Causes of U.S. Political Violence

Stacked Bar Chart: Perceived causes of U.S. political violence.

The Data: Seventy-one percent of Americans say the spread of extremist viewpoints on the internet is to blame “a great deal” for recent political violence in the U.S., more than the other six factors tested.

Beyond the Internet: Inflammatory language from political figures (64%) and failures of the mental health system (52%) also draw majority-level blame for political violence. Fewer blame easy access to guns (45%), drug use (31%), insufficient public security (24%) or violence in entertainment media (21%) — although at least half of Americans rate each of these factors as blameworthy to some extent.

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From the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare

Checkup Results: U.S. Healthcare Scores

Table: Letter grades for four key healthcare metrics in the U.S.

The Data: Americans give their local healthcare systems an overall grade of C, with quality and access both earning a C+ and cost rated lowest at D+, according to West Health and Gallup's latest survey.

More Context: No state received an A grade for overall care, access, cost or quality. Even top-performing states averaged ratings in the “satisfactory” (C) or “poor” (D) range, highlighting widespread dissatisfaction across the country and underscoring the persistent challenge of affordability.

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3. Ho-Ho-Hold the Gifts

Line Chart: Americans' views of their holiday spending each November.

The Data: Twenty-nine percent of U.S. adults say they will spend less on holiday gifts than last year, up modestly from 23% in October and in November 2024.

Christmas Spending: Americans estimate that they will spend $778 on holiday gifts this year, according to Gallup's November reading. This is the lowest November estimate since 2016 and marks a sharp drop from last year ($1,012 in 2024). This figure is also down from an October 2025 survey, when Americans said they expected to spend $1,007 on Christmas or holiday gifts.

Split Bar Chart: Most neighbors see more positives than negatives for Syria.

The Data: One year after President Bashar al-Assad's ouster, many in Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye believe the fall of his regime will ultimately benefit Syrians. Iraqis are more pessimistic, with 46% saying the change will negatively affect Syrians, compared with 27% who expect positive results.

The Context: Assad had ruled Syria since 2000, following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had been in power since 1970. The younger Assad was overthrown on Dec. 8, 2024.

Infographics: Americans' predictions for life in 2025 made in 1998.

The Data: In 1998, Americans were asked what they thought life would be like in 2025. Among their predictions, 69% believed the U.S. would elect a Black president by 2025, and 66% expected a woman to be elected president. Many Americans (61%) also thought people would routinely live to be 100.

Predictions: Americans in 1998 were overly confident about medical advances occurring by 2025 (such as life expectancy and curing cancer), while they were appropriately skeptical about changes to transportation (including space travel). One key accurate forecast was predicting the U.S. would elect its first Black president, as it did with Barack Obama in 2008. And while remote work is not yet the norm, it saw widespread adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, partially validating public expectations from 1998.

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