Protection from terrorism

A majority of Americans currently say they believe the Republican Party (55 percent) is better able than the Democratic Party (32 percent) to protect the country from terrorism and military threats. This marks the widest division since the question was first posed by Gallup in 2002, when 50 percent said Republican and 31 percent picked Democrat. Only once have the Democrats been picked as the greater protector and that was in 2007 toward the end of George W. Bush’s second term in office. The results were evenly split in 2012.