There’s a slight drop in American patriotism this Independence Day, according to a new Gallup poll.
The poll, which dates back to 2001, did this round of polling from June 1 to June 13, 2018, between a random sample of 1,520 adults, aged 18 and older in the United States and District of Columbia.
In Gallop's history of polling American pride, the poll saw its first ever drop below half in American’s who were “extremely” proud. Forty seven percent of American’s identified as extremely proud in the 2018 poll, whereas 2003 saw the highest percentage of Americans identify as “extremely” proud at 70 percent.
However, “extremely” proud is only one of the possible options.
The full breakdown is 47 percent “extremely” proud, 25 percent “very” proud, 16 percent “moderately” proud, seven percent are "only a little" proud, and three percent are “not at all” proud. The final option was “no opinion.”
In the 2017’s poll, Gallup tracked data for both “very” proud and “extremely” proud responses back to 2001. The data shows that the 72 percent of people identifying as “very” or “extremely” proud in 2018 is still the lowest in their trend, a notable drop from 2017 and 2016's figures, 75 and 81 percent, respectively.
Despite the decline in extreme pride, the vast majority of Americans do feel a level pride when combined with those feeling very proud. According to Gallup, Republicans are more likely to say they are “extremely” proud, 74 percent, Americans in comparison to Democrats and independents.
The poll took a special look at the drop among Democrats and Independents who identified as “extremely” proud. Fewer than one in three, 32 percent, of Democrats were “extremely” proud to be American, while less than half of Independents, 42 percent, identified as "extremely" proud. Both represented a drop from the prior year. Only 23 percent of political liberals identified as a “extremely” proud. The Gallup polls shows extreme pride in liberals dropping nine points from 2017 and 28 points since 2013.
Demographic differences were also expressed, as the poll revealed that young adults, college graduates, nonwhites, and women are below the national average in terms of being “extremely” proud to be American. Gallup identified these groups as Democratic-leaning.
Gallup’s Republican leaning groups were older adults, those without a college degree, whites, and men. They are above the average of those who feel “extremely” proud to be American.
For Gallup, one of the notable factors from the poll was that fewer than half of U.S. adults are extremely proud to be Americans, which had not been seen before in the poll’s history, and they noted that politics appeared to be the factor. Sharp declines were evident in political liberals and Democrats.
The study claims that the antipathy for President Trump and a belief that other countries look unfavorably on the president could be likely factors in their patriotism decline, but it adds that these declines began before President Trump was elected.
“National pride may be just one of a growing number of issues — including opinions about guns, labor unions and the environment — for which party loyalties are pushing Democrats and Republicans to adopt divergent views. These changes are making each party's base more homogenous but increasingly different from one another,” according to Gallup.
