(CNSNews.com) – Almost one in four Americans taking part in a new poll said the United States should no longer participate in the United Nations.
 
Rasmussen Reports announced at the weekend that 66 percent of respondents in its survey thought U.S. participation should continue, 24 percent said it should not, and 10 percent were unsure.
 
Republican voters were considerably more likely to want to see the U.S. out of the U.N. – 38 percent compared to eight percent of Democrats. Thirty percent of unaffiliated voters took the same position.
 
The Rasmussen survey result was announced shortly after another polling company, Gallup, released the results of its latest survey, finding that Americans’ opinion of the U.N.’s effectiveness had dropped to 26 percent – the lowest point in more than half a century of tracking the issue.
 
In the Gallup poll, respondents more negative about the U.N. tended to be those who voted Republican, were older, and were college graduates.
 
Rasmussen said its poll was conducted just before last week’s row over U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s description of the U.S. as a “deadbeat” donor to the world body went public.
 
The U.S. is by far the biggest contributor to the U.N.’s operating and peacekeeping budgets, but also owes the most in arrears.