It’s the 250th anniversary of the U.S. this weekend and half of Americans say they never fly the nation’s flag, according to recent AP NORC poll results. New results also show that Republicans are more likely to describe themselves as patriotic than Democrats.
“Republicans are currently prouder than Democrats of all aspects of American society asked about, except for popular culture,” according to AP NORC. “Democratic and Republican pride in American popular culture is about the same.”
Overall, U.S. adults are feeling less pride in several aspects of the country this year than they were almost a decade ago during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. Pride in the armed forces dropped from 78% to 59%, pride in history dropped from 58% to 44%, pride in the way democracy works dropped from 42% to 28%, and political influence on the world dropped from 34% to 24%.
“Partisan differences are responsible for driving some of these declines in pride,” AP NORC noted. Another area with a decrease in pride is how America treats different groups in society, with 47% now holding a negative opinion, compared with 35% in 2017, and AP NORC said Democrats were largely responsible for the increase.
Since Trump began his second term last year, he has made it a point to make moves that impact specific groups. He declared there are only two genders (a move criticized by the LGBTQ community) called for a controversial illegal immigration crackdown and, under his administration, there have been plans to re-install at least one Confederate statue.
AP NORC’s results also indicate that flags on houses won’t be a common sight this year, even on Independence Day this weekend. Only 22% of the respondents said they display an American flag at their homes every day, and just 27% said they did on holidays.
“Republicans are more likely than Democrats or independents to fly the American flag at their home either every day or on holidays,” according to AP NORC.
Andy Smith, director of the University New Hampshire Survey Center, told Tommy Tucker of Audacy station WWL in New Orleans this week that polls have been recording declines in patriotism for years.
“The whole decline in American institutions, governmental institutions, even nongovernmental institutions like the military and police, or I guess quasi-governmental, has been since the 1960s when Gallup first started measuring,” Smith said. He also noted that when “there’s a Republican president, Republicans are more proud, when there’s a Democratic president, Democrats are more proud.”
Smith said this partisan divide has become more extreme in recent years. This year, the Trump administration’s events to celebrate the nation’s anniversary have been criticized for being too political, for example.
This divide can be traced back to at least the Vietnam War era, Smith said. Certain periods, especially those when the economy is bad, have exacerbated the divide and have impacted Americans’ pride in the country. Right now, inflation is high and impacting Americans’ wallets, Smith noted.
“One thing that you have to have when you’re in politics or trying to govern a country is have to kind of have a unifying base or some unifying symbols for your country. And the flag has always been that for America, but it’s become less so now,” he said.
