(Townhall) Last week, just before the 4th of July holiday, Gallup released their findings on how proud respondents were to be American.
For 2023, the number who responded they are “extremely proud” is at just 39 percent, near the record low of last year’s 38 percent. A combined 67 percent are “extremely proud” or “very proud,” with 28 percent choosing that option. “Since 2018, extreme pride has consistently been… averaging 42%,” the poll’s write-up noted.
The biggest difference in those who say they are “extremely proud” is by political affiliation. Although not quite at the record low of 2019’s 22 percent, just 29 percent of Democrats answered they are “extremely proud,” reflecting a downward partisan trend.
“That gap has been particularly pronounced since 2018, with more than twice as many Republicans as Democrats saying they are extremely proud. Republicans are also nearly twice as likely as independents to express the highest degree of pride,” the write-up noted about such a trend. This year, 60 percent of Republicans said they were “extremely proud,” while just 33 percent of Independents said so, not far off from that 29 percent of Democrats.
Results from 2019 showed a particularly polarizing year. That was the record low for Democrats, with just 22 percent saying they were “extremely proud.” Independents had been at 41 percent, which was close to what was then their lowest reading, and 76 percent of Republicans said they were “extremely proud,” one of the highest numbers since the poll began in 2001.
Given Democrats’ low level of such strong pride in being an American, it would seem that it’s not as simple as who is in office. Polarizing sentiments about then President Donald Trump would make such for such levels in 2019, but now Joe Biden is president. Republicans were also still more so “extremely proud,” when then President Barack Obama was in office.
As the 2019 Gallup write-up noted:
That year’s write-up went into even deeper detail in the “Bottom Line” section:
