Are You Proud to Be an American?

According to Gallup, Americans are nearly divided equally when it comes to believing in America: 42% do not believe in America, while “58% are either ‘extremely’ or ‘somewhat’ proud to be American.” Ben Shapiro concluded that the number of people who are proud to be American has steeply declined since 2004 when it was 91% and even in 2016 when it was 81%. He continued his analysis as follows. 

The trend isn’t equivalent across the political spectrum. Republicans have always been far prouder of their country: their pride number has never dropped below 84% in 2022, and currently stands at 92%. The serious decline is located among independents, who have dropped from 76% in 2013 to 53% today, and Democrats, who plummeted from 80% to 36% during that same period. Furthermore, Americans’ age correlates highly with levels of American pride: 83% of the Silent Generation venerates the country, as do 75% of Baby Boomers and 71% of Generation Xers – but just 58% of Millennials and 41% of Generation Z do.

So, what precisely happened?

The answer is simple: Republicans started winning, and Democrats spiraled off. President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 sent Democrats spiraling into an anti-American black hole, with their pride in America dropping off a cliff during the first Trump term, recovering only moderately during Joe Biden’s term (62% in 2021), and then plummeting again this year. Democrats embraced a new and extreme anti-American point of view, reflected most obviously in the elevation of figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and now New York Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

These figures, emblems of a new wave in the Democratic Party, are disaffected with America in general. If the promise of Barack Obama is that the vessel of the Democratic Party could be used to bottle the fire and fervor of the revolutionary Left, these radicals believe that all bottles must be shattered – that the institutions of the United States must be exploded entirely. They see the reelection of Donald Trump as indicative of a deep rot at the heart of the American experiment, and wish to eviscerate the fundamental ideas of that experiment. They champion the supposed virtue of the Third World and the supposed evil of the United States; the supposed beauties of socialism and evils of capitalism; the supposed virtue of transgressive social values and the supposed evils of traditionalism. They believe that America’s unique Constitution is a framework for oppression; they believe that rights are mere guises for despotic power, and that duties are cynically placed fetters upon their true selves….

They have taken over the Democratic Party – and they are making extraordinary inroads among younger Americans. Ironically, that’s due to the failure of the very institutions the political Left hijacked and misused for decades….

Meanwhile, political independents grow increasingly discouraged by our politics. They see Republicans shifting the deck chairs atop the Titanic of state as Democrats eagerly drill more holes in the hull – and they are increasingly depressed. They are not wrong to be. But they are wrong to believe that they can or should chart a middle course between those who love America and her founding principles and those who despise them. We should all be proud of America, the greatest country in the history of the world, with all of its faults and flaws. And we should work to correct those faults and flaws rather than seeking its overthrow, or despairing and throwing up our hands.