In the latest  poll by YouGov/Economist, 63% of Americans say the country is moving in the wrong direction, more than double the number who think the country is generally on a positive heading (29%).

Republicans, of course, seize on the negative number to place 100% of blame at the foot of President Obama and the Democrats. But probe more deeply into follow-up questions to dissect “why” people see things as going awry, and you discover that people are dissatisfied, but not about the same things; they blame different people, organizations, and things.

IT’S THE ECONOMY FIRST: The Huffington Post reports: “Despite the world’s string of high-profile terror attacks this year, the economy remains at the top of American voters’ minds. A 45 percent plurality name the economy as one of the two issues most important to them, ranking it first on a list of 10 topics.”

Following economic concerns is a wide range of items where there’s plenty of blame to go around:

the selection of Supreme Court justices comes next in terms of importance to Americans in the Huff Post poll at 30%
health care at 26%
immigration: 22%
the way things work in Washington: 14%
social issues: 13%
gun policies: 13%
foreign policy: 13% (terrorism concerns are in this number)
the environment: 10%
voting rights: 3%

CONGRESS: One telling additional number is the disapproval rating for the House and Senate: 62% disapprove of performance, while only 13% approve. But even that statistic doesn’t get to the nub of the issue since Congress is comprised of members of both parties. One explanation is that the elevated “wrong track” numbers are related to growing partisan polarization, combined with continued perceptions of government gridlock.

TERRORISM: Donald Trump talks about ISIS and terrorism daily, to the point where it would seem he sees terrorists at almost every door. It is true that Americans think terrorist attacks in the U.S. are more imminent now than at any point since 2003. According to a recent CNN/ORC Poll conducted after the shooting in Orlando and attacks in Europe, 60% of Democrats believe an attack is likely, compared to 72% of independents and 84% of Republicans. A staggering 41% of those in the poll are “…at least somewhat worried that they or a family member will become a victim.”

But, what level of fear about terrorism in the U.S. could be seen as rational? If you believe in statistics, excessive fear is not founded in facts.

In the 16 years since 9/11, slightly less than six people have died, on average, per year in homeland terror attacks. To put that number in perspective, so far in 2016, 18 people have been killed by lightning.

In a July 2016 interview with the BBC, President Obama said: “If you look at the number of Americans killed (on U.S. soil) since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100.” Compare the number of Americans murdered each year in gun violence; that number tops 11,000 or 1,833 times more that from terror attacks. http://www.bradycampaign.org/key-gun-violence-statistics .

It’s easy to claim that America is on the wrong track, but every country on earth can make the same claim; people are never totally satisfied with the state of affairs — that’s human nature.

What we could keep in mind is that the simplistic placement of blame by media pundits is often disingenuous and just plain wrong. With health care, for example, some people may have concerns that it should be more affordable and single payer, while others would say Obama Care is the problem. Likewise with the environment and gun policies; it’s very likely many Republicans would have views almost diametrically opposed to those held by Democrats.

One conclusion is that the way Americans view “concerns” about the U.S. right or wrong track issue is largely dependent on their political affiliation — a familiar refrain.