“As Americans prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, their pride in the U.S. has hit its lowest point since Gallup’s first measurement in 2001,” writes Megan Brenan. Forty-five percent of American adults say they are “extremely” proud of their country, Brenan continues, “marking the second consecutive year that this reading is below the majority level.” In 2017, 47 percent of adults said they were extremely proud of the United States.
Republican national pride has been consistent, Gallup finds. The 76 percent of Republicans who expressed extreme pride in the latest survey is 10 points off the high of 86 percent in 2003. “Even when Barack Obama was in office,” Brenan writes, “Republicans’ extreme pride never fell below 68 percent.”
Fewer Democrats than Republicans have said they had pride in America since the poll question was first asked in 2001. Lately, though, Democratic pride has fallen off a cliff. Just 22 percent of Democrats say they feel extreme pride for their country in the latest survey. That’s half the number recorded prior to the 2016 election. Needless to say, the nature and policies of the forty-fifth president have contributed to the Democratic plunge.
And yet I was also struck by the decline of Democratic “extreme” pride during Barack Obama’s second term. It went from 56 percent in 2013 to 44 percent in 2016. Might that be attributed to liberal disappointment in Obama? Or is it further evidence of the “Great Awokening” of social justice activism that is apparent in white progressive attitudes toward race relations and in word usage in the New York Times?
“Absent a significant national event that might rally all Americans around the flag,” Brenan concludes, “given Democrats’ entrenched views of the president, these historically low readings on American pride are likely to continue until Trump is no longer in office.” Which, given the Democrats’ left-wing drift, might not happen until 2025.
Happy Fourth.