A new Gallup poll indicates a steep decline in national pride in America, largely among Democrats and Gen Z. In fact, the split between Democrats and Republicans in regard to who’s proud to be an American and who isn’t is as wide as it has been since 2001, the year of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Of course, it probably wouldn’t surprise many Republicans—who have been making American pride a core tenet of their personalities for at least the last couple of decades, that they love America more than their political counterparts—but there’s a question that I’ll get into in a minute about whether the Gallup poll is an indication of national pride or national idealism.
First, let’s start with the poll results. From the Associated Press:
Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults who are part of Generation Z, which is defined as those born from 1997 to 2012, expressed a high level of pride in being American in Gallup surveys conducted in the past five years, on average. That’s compared with about 6 in 10 Millennials — those born between 1980 and 1996 — and at least 7 in 10 U.S. adults in older generations.
“Each generation is less patriotic than the prior generation, and Gen Z is definitely much lower than anybody else,” said Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup. “But even among the older generations, we see that they’re less patriotic than the ones before them, and they’ve become less patriotic over time. That’s primarily driven by Democrats within those generations.”
America’s decline in national pride has been a slow erosion, with a steady downtick in Gallup’s data since January 2001, when the question was first asked.
Even during the tumultuous early years of the Iraq War, the vast majority of U.S. adults, whether Republican or Democrat, said they were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American. At that point, about 9 in 10 were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American. That remained high in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the consensus around American pride slipped in the years that followed, dropping to about 8 in 10 in 2006 and continuing a gradual decline.
Now, 58% of U.S. adults say that, in a downward shift that’s been driven almost entirely by Democrats and independents. The vast majority of Republicans continue to say they’re proud to be American.
Independents’ pride in their national identity hit a new low in the most recent survey, at 53%, largely following that pattern of gradual decline.
Democrats’ diminished pride in being American is more clearly linked to Trump’s time in office. When Trump first entered the White House, in 2017, about two-thirds of Democrats said they were proud to be American. That had fallen to 42% by 2020, just before Trump lost reelection to Democrat Joe Biden.
So, according to the Gallup poll, patriotism (or what many Americans understand to be patriotism) has declined among Democrats and young people, but remained generally consistent among Republicans. Here’s the question, though: How much would these results change if respondents were asked how much they love the version of America that exists in reality, as opposed to the idea of America that exists in their minds?
Sure, MAGA Republicans love Americans—so long as they’re not Democrats, “leftists,” immigrants, Black Lives Matter advocates (and/or Black lives in general), Muslims, members of the LGBTQ community, feminists, critical race theorists, pro-choice advocates, or anyone else who fall under what they consider to be “woke.”
They love the U.S. Constitution — when it’s convenient for them to love it, which appears to exclude the due process afforded to migrants who they simply want out of the country, the federal challenges that get in the way of Trump’s agenda, the free speech they consider to be “liberal indoctrination,” and the protests Trump considers to be “illegal,” which seems to include any protests that promotes views he and his constituents disagree with.
Republicans also tend to hate the government unless people they like are running it.
It’s easy to claim you have national pride when the white nationalist you elected to office is promising to make America great again. It’s easy to call yourself a patriot when your understanding of patriotism is actually jingoism.
But how much pride do you have in America — this America — really?
SEE ALSO:
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New Gallup Poll Shows American Pride Has Declined Among Democrats And Gen Z, But What Does That Realy Mean?
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