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Americans aren't big fans of the Democratic and Republican parties. Only 37% have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, and 36% view the Republican Party favorably.

But the natures of those unfavorable opinions differ between the parties. To explore this, YouGov asked Americans to pick which of 40 terms — 20 of them positive and 20 negative — describe each party.

Americans are much more likely to say the negative terms describe each party than to say the positive ones do. 13 of the 14 most-chosen terms to describe the Republican Party are negative, as are 11 of the 13 most-chosen terms for the Democratic Party.

Some terms are chosen often for both parties, including corrupt (30% say this describes the Democratic Party and 41% say it describes the Republican Party), out of touch (33% for each), dishonest (29% vs. 37%), and hypocritical (27% vs. 35%).

Other terms are much more commonly used to describe only one of the two parties. For example, 34% of Americans say the Republican Party is patriotic, while only 16% say the Democratic Party is. More negatively, 34% apply "racist" to Republicans and only 18% do for Democrats. Americans are more likely to apply "weak" to Democrats (26% say this describes Democrats and 19% say it describes Republicans), and also to say Democrats are open-minded (29% vs. 13%) and inclusive (29% and 11%).

Respondents could choose as many of the terms as they wanted from the lists. Some respondents picked many words for each party, and some picked just one or two. The best way to interpret this data is to compare the relative frequency at which each term was chosen rather than to emphasize exact numerical findings such as that "34% of Americans say the Republican Party is patriotic." We can be confident that more Americans describe the Republican Party as patriotic (34%) than describe it as inclusive (11%), and that Americans are more likely to apply "patriotic" to Republicans and "inclusive" to Democrats — but the exact numbers could differ from a survey that asked differently.

Democrats and Republicans are both more likely to choose positive terms for their own party and negative terms for the other party. For example, only 5% of Democrats say the Democratic Party is corrupt, but 56% of Republicans say it is. 54% of Democrats and 11% of Republicans say the Democratic Party is inclusive.

But even a party's own members describe it more often with some positive terms than with others. Democrats are more likely to call the Democratic Party open-minded, inclusive, intelligent, or responsible than to describe it with "strong," "well-managed," or "winners."

The same pattern holds for Republicans. 74% of Democrats say the Republican Party is corrupt, compared to only 5% of Republicans. 15% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans say the Republican Party is patriotic.

Republicans are more likely to say their party is patriotic, strong, or responsible than to say it's modern, inclusive, or generous.

YouGov previously asked these questions in February 2025, near the start of Donald Trump's second term as president. Since then, Americans have become slightly more likely to call the Republican Party corrupt (41% now vs. 37% then) and less likely to call it strong (24% vs. 29%), capable (20% vs. 27%), and realistic (20% vs. 27%).

Americans are less likely now to choose every one of the 40 possible positive or negative descriptors for the Democratic Party, though many of the changes are within the surveys' margins of error. Some of the more significant drops are in the share who describe Democrats as out of touch (33% now vs. 40% last year), dishonest (29% vs. 35%), and weak (26% vs. 34%).

See the full results of this survey

Methodology: The August 6 - 10, 2026 poll was conducted among 2,188 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent's most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.0%.

Image: Getty

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