Majority of Americans want political leaders to compromise: Gallup

A majority of Americans continue to believe that political leaders in Washington should compromise in order to get things done, found a latest Gallup poll.

Gallup has asked Americans seven times since 2010 to indicate if they think political should compromise in order to get things done, or should stick to their principles even if little gets done.

This year's poll found 53 percent of Americans favored "compromise" over "sticking to principles," up six percentage points from 47 percent when the question was first asked in late 2010.

Meanwhile, 21 percent of Americans prefer that their leaders stick to their principles. But this is the lowest point recorded, compared to the record high of 28 percent in 2011, Gallup said.

The attitude is particularly relevant to the current situation in Washington, where the Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a stopgap budget resolution to avoid another government shutdown, Gallup noted.

U.S. Congress has been dogged in the last eight years by bitter partisan rivalry that has prevented both sides from enacting legislation and compromising on a number of issues. This has led to low approval ratings for Congress among the U.S. public.

Although Congress' job approval ratings have edged up to 20 percent, they are still historically low and reflect Americans' general antipathy toward their elected representatives. Congressional gridlock is the top reason Americans give for disapproving of Congress.

Democrats and Republicans continue to look at this philosophic question through somewhat different lenses. Currently, 56 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favor "compromise," while 20 percent favor "sticking to principles."

In contract, 48 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor "compromise," while 22 percent favor "sticking to their principles."

The gap between Republicans' and Democrats' preferences for compromise is much smaller than it was in 2013, when 63 percent of Democrats and their leaners and 42 percent of Republicans and their leaners favored "compromise." Enditem