To understand changes in public opinion on how U.S. presidents should behave, YouGov re-asked a set of survey questions from a 1979 Gallup poll found in the Roper Center Polling Archive as part of a series called Polls from the Past. The results show which presidential behaviors Americans are more and less likely to accept today than when Jimmy Carter was president. For example, Americans are now much more likely to object to a president privately telling jokes about racial or ethnic minorities, but less likely to object to a president smoking marijuana on occasion.
The 1979 survey that YouGov adapted asked Americans whether they would object to nine behaviors if they were true about a U.S. president. The original poll, which was conducted in-person rather than online, found that 70% of Americans would object strongly to a president occasionally smoking marijuana, while 43% would object strongly to a president telling racial or ethnic jokes in private, and 38% would object if the president was not a member of a church. In 1979, few Americans objected strongly to a president having a cocktail before dinner every night (14%), being divorced (17%), or occasionally wearing jeans in the Oval Office (21%). Americans in the 1979 poll were also less likely to answer don’t know to each of the nine questions than were 2023 Americans.
Today, Americans are much less likely to object strongly to a president occasionally smoking marijuana (40% now vs. 70% in 1979) or forgoing church membership (14% vs. 38%), and much more likely to object strongly to a president telling racial or ethnic jokes in private (60% vs. 43%). They are also less likely now to strongly object to a president seeing a psychiatrist (14% vs. 30%), but about as likely as those in 1979 to object to presidents wearing jeans in the Oval Office (16% vs. 21%).
Americans today are far less likely than in 1979 (30% vs. 60%) to not object to a U.S. president occasionally using tranquilizers: medications such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines that slow brain activity to treat anxiety and sleep problems. Our recent survey finds that far more Americans say they "don't know" about whether they object to presidential tranquilizer use than did so in the earlier survey (27% vs. 4%). Tranquilizer use in the 1970s was much more widespread than today, which may explain some of this difference.
While we don't have data on how views of presidential behavior varied by party in 1979, we do find significant differences among Democrats and Republicans in our recent survey. In 2023, Democrats are somewhat less likely than Republicans to strongly object to occasional tranquilizer use and marijuana use. They are much more likely than Republicans to strongly object to a president telling racial or ethnic jokes in private.
While majorities of Democrats and Republicans do not strongly object to a president seeing a psychiatrist or not being a member of a church, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to strongly object to each of these behaviors. Democrats and Republicans are similarly likely to not object to a president being divorced, having a cocktail before dinner, and using profane language.
See the results for this YouGov poll and explore more Polls from the Past
Methodology: The YouGov poll was conducted online on October 18 - 21, 2023 among 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. For both polls, the sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample also was weighted by baseline party identification, which is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (Chip Somodevilla)
