Proud of America
Each year, especially around Independence Day, polling groups ask about how we as a people feel about our nation. A few polls released in advance of the marker this year are interesting.
One, from NBC News and Gallup, has asked for decades how proud you are to be an American. In early 2001, 25 years ago, just after the divisive presidential election of 2000, 90 percent of Republicans said they were extremely or very proud to be an American, with 85 percent of Democrats saying the same thing. Pretty close.
Today, while 90 percent of Republicans still feel that way…only 29 percent of Democrats do. Literally less than a third of Democrats are proud to be an American.
That’s obviously a huge partisan shift, but the poll it not an outlier.
Combine all survey participants together, as PRRI has done…in the summer of 2013, 81 percent of respondents said they were either “extremely proud” or “very proud” in their American identity. Twelve percent said they were “moderately proud,” 3 percent said they were “only a little proud” and 1 percent said they were “not at all proud”—that trio totaled 16 percent.
It’s a very different story today: only 51 percent of respondents said they are either “extremely proud” or “very proud” of their American identity, compared with 81 a bit more than a decade ago. Twenty-three percent said they are “moderately proud” about their American identity, 14 percent said they are “only a little proud” and 11 percent said they are “not at all proud”—now that trio is 48 percent, three times higher than before.
A lot of factors are at work, and while it’s easy to blame Trump Derangement Syndrome, or Trump, for the change…what would need to happen for it to change back. That’s the more important societal issue.
