Americans' pride in US history and democracy drops, and fewer are proud to be American, polls find

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/poll-america-identity-pride-proud-3f333d6db84c73ca7e78882b0a2a2070

Americans’ pride in US history and democracy drops, and fewer are proud to be American, polls find
By LINLEY SANDERS, SIMRAN PARWANI and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX
Updated 4:02 AM CDT, June 29, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans have grown less proud of their country’s history or the way its democracy works over the past decade, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

Americans’ pride in the U.S. on several key attributes has dropped since 2017 — including the nation’s military and its political influence around the globe — according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. This poll was conducted in April, as the United States and Iran fought over the Strait of Hormuz in a prolonged war that started with the U.S. and Israel launching strikes on Iran.

New Gallup polling also finds that only 53% of U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” proud to be an American, the lowest reading in the trend dating back to 2001.

The findings point to a broad decline in patriotic sentiment over a tumultuous period that included most of President Donald Trump’s first term, the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation that contributed to a backlash against President Joe Biden. That timeframe also covers Trump’s return to the White House, where he’s taken more aggressive actions on immigration and issues abroad.







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[Mysterian]

1. Thanks to every single republican for degrading our once great country

into a shameful, warmongering plutocracy.

[Raftergirl]

2. Honestly, I don't get all this pride and patriotism crap just because of the country one lives in. It's all just

an accident of birth. Nationalism of any kind is a turn off for me.

I consider myself a citizen of the world.

[LearnedHand]

3. Well said

I have this same sentiment but couldn’t wrap words around it. Thanks for putting it so clearly.

[Igel]

4. Same for race and ethnicity.

And I know a lot of gifted/talented kids who are proud that they've merely put in the same effort as others with much greater results, because of birth or environment they had nothing to do with.

[Nanjeanne]

9. That's what I came here to say. Thanks.

[Martin Eden]

5. Pride in personal accomplishment is an indulgence

Pride can blind a person to necessary introspection and to just criticism.

Pride in national history of which a person has taken little or no part is, at best, stolen glory. All too often it blinds people to the full history, good and bad, from which important lessons need to be learned and applied to building a better future.

Worst of all, national pride can perpetuate the wrongs of the past by blinding people to the harmful forces still at work, which must be exposed and corrected.

National pride will be the central theme this July 4th, celebrating the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding. For this occasion to be more than self indulgent pride, and to truly honor our Declaration of Independence and Constitution that followed, should we not reflect upon the highest ideals in those founding documents and assess whether We The People through our own government are upholding those ideals?

We must not turn a blind eye to the wrongs currently being done, nor shirk our responsibility as citizens to expose what is harmful and to make the necessary corrections in order to build a more perfect union and a better future.

Those responsibilities are for every day, not just for annual or fifty year occasions. Today, more than ever in our lifetimes, corrections are urgently needed. The head of our government is the kind of tyrant about which our nation's founders warned us. Our Constitution and institutions thereof are under assault from within, and the majority party in Congress has been complicit. Do we turn a blind eye as we celebrate, or do something about it?

[EnergizedLib]

6. I was a proud American before 2016

I’m even less proud today.

[Intractable]

7. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins.

I try to avoid it.

[maxsolomon]

8. I've rarely felt pride in the USA.

It was illuminating when I went to the 2010 Winter Olympics - seeing Euros wave their flags, dressed in national gear, I felt like maybe I was missing something.

I was, but it's only Sport where I can feel national pride. MFer and Repukes have destroyed it otherwise.

[republianmushroom]

10. Can totally understand this decline,

as I have some of it.