Pride in being an American continues to drop: Poll

A new poll reveals Americans continue to feel less patriotic as time goes on

The Gallup poll shows only 58 percent of American adults say they are very or extremely proud to be

an American. That's down nine percentage points from a year ago and five points below the prior

low from 2020. It's also down from the 87 percent who answered affirmatively when the first poll was

taken in 2002. Morris Fiorina, political science professor at Stanford, told Straight Arrow News

this. You know, I think you can't point to any particular single factor. I think there are a lot

of things at work. Quite honestly, the government hasn't been doing really well for 20 years or so

We had a major recession that took 10 years to get out of. We've had some foreign policy

you wouldn't exactly call them. Well, the Afghan withdrawal was sort of a disaster

but we've had sort of a lack of foreign policy successes. There was also a major divide among party lines with only 36 percent of Democrats saying they

were very or extremely proud. Only 53 percent of independents felt very or extremely proud

Meanwhile, 92 percent of Republicans say they feel very or extremely proud

a number that's remained high since the poll began. Straight Arrow News also spoke with two Americans on opposite sides of the political spectrum

Because I think it kind of depends on the category of America, like which facet of America are we talking about right If we talking about with how we treating other humans right now not feeling super patriotic there are things to be proud of we certainly have it better than a lot of other places in the world but we certainly have a long way to go to be where we were

decades ago you know you can live uh in a big city where there's a bunch to do or you can live

out in the countryside where the cost of living is pretty low. As far as feeling safe in my day

to day, being able to carry a pistol legally or local police, our military, I'd say I'm

proud to still be an American. The biggest gap was between generations. 83% of the silent

generation or people born before 1946 said they are very or extremely proud to be an American

Now that's compared to only 41 percent of Gen Z or people born between 1997 and 2012

With the younger generation, all you have is what's recent, whereas the older generation

remember the good times as well as the bad times. The older, farther back you go. I mean

when I was growing up, everybody had been a World War II vet, you know, that they were very patriotic

That's not that way now. Nobody's left in that generation. So, yeah, I think probably just younger people are much more reactive to the current affairs

and have less memory of longer-term developments. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan

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