(Washington) According to a new Gallup poll, only 36 % of Democrats say they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, which reflects a spectacular decline in national pride, also observed among young people.
These results clearly illustrate how many Americans, but not all, have felt a drop in pride towards their country in the past decade. The gap between Democrats and Republicans, 56 percentage points, has been at its highest level since 2001. This figure includes the four years of the first mandate of Republican President Donald Trump.
On average, around 4 out of 10 American adults belonging to generation Z, defined as people born between 1997 and 2012, expressed a high level of pride in being American in the Gallup polls carried out in the past five years. By way of comparison, this is the case of around 6 millennarials out of 10 (born between 1980 and 1996) and at least 7 American adults out of 10 of older generations.
“Each generation is less patriotic than the previous one, and generation Z is much less patriotic than the others,” said Jeffrey Jones, editor in chief at Gallup. But even among older generations, we see that they are less patriotic than the previous ones, and this, over time. This phenomenon is mainly due to the Democrats within these generations. »»
A slow erosion of national pride
The decline of national pride in the United States has taken place slowly, with a constant drop in Gallup data since January 2001, when the question was asked for the first time.
Even during the tumultuous first years of the war in Iraq, the vast majority of American adults, whether republicans or democrats, declared themselves “extremely” or “very” proud to be American. At that time, around 9 out of 10 people were “extremely” or “very” proud of being American. This figure remained high after the attacks of September 11, 2001, but the consensus around American pride has fallen in the years that followed, falling at around 8 out of 10 in 2006, thus undertaking its progressive decline.
Today, 58 % of American adults say this, a downward trend almost entirely attributable to democrats and the self -employed. The vast majority of Republicans continue to say they are proud of being American.
The pride of the self -employed towards their national identity reached a new floor during the last survey, 53 %, closely following this gradual decrease trend.
The drop in the pride of being American Democrats is more clearly linked to Donald Trump’s mandate. When he entered the White House, in 2017, about two-thirds of the Democrats said they were proud to be American. This figure fell 42 % in 2020, just before Donald Trump’s defeat against Democrat Joe Biden.
But if the feeling of national pride of the Democrats rebounded with the arrival of Joe Biden in power, he did not find his level before Donald Trump.
“It’s not just a Trump story,” said Jones. There is something else happens, and I think it is simply due to the arrival of the young generations, who are not as patriotic as their elders. »»
Republicans and democrats divided on patriotism
Other recent surveys show that democrats and self -employed are less likely than Republicans to affirm that it is important to express your patriotism or to experience pride towards their national leaders.
Nearly 9 out of 10 Republicans, in an SSRS survey of 2024, said they thought that patriotism had a positive impact on the United States, the Democrats being more divided: 45 % said that patriotism had a positive impact on the country, while 37 % deemed it negative. But a more general feeling of dissatisfaction was clearly noticeable on both sides this year, when a CNN/SSRS survey revealed that less than one democrat and one in ten republican declared himself “proud” of current American politics.
In this survey, most of the Americans, all who left, said they were “disappointed” or “frustrated” by the country’s policy.
