Americans losing Pride in America

[The Barbarian]

Across the United States on Wednesday, Americans will set off fireworks and celebrate Independence Day. But a poll released Monday suggests that, on this July 4, fewer U.S. adults are extremely proud to be American than at any point since 2001.

For the first time in Gallup’s polling, which dates back to the surge in patriotism experienced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, a minority of Americans said they were extremely proud. Just 47 percent described themselves that way in the poll conducted between June 1 and June 13, down from 51 percent last year.

The number of adults proud to be American reached a high of 70 percent in 2003 before dipping amid U.S. military involvement in Iraq. Still, it remained above 50 percent throughout President Barack Obama’s eight years in office.

The decline comes despite Donald Trump making pride in America a central hallmark of his rhetoric both as a candidate and a president, highlighted by his slogans “Make America Great Again” and “America First.”
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-americans-proud-us-911-1005312

 

[Idolater]

Such an interesting baseline, 9/11

This is the lowest 'proud to be an American' time, since 9/11

I wonder what it was before 9/11

Maybe we've finally 'digested' 9/11 as a nation, and this indicator proves it?

Wishful thinking, perhaps.

 

[The Barbarian]

(Americans are less proud of American than just a few years ago)

Such an interesting baseline, 9/11

This is the lowest 'proud to be an American' time, since 9/11

I wonder what it was before 9/11

Maybe we've finally 'digested' 9/11 as a nation, and this indicator proves it?

Wishful thinking, perhaps.

That, or maybe America has done a few things lately that most of us aren't very proud of.

One of those.

 

[Idolater]

(Americans are less proud of American than just a few years ago)



That, or maybe America has done a few things lately that most of us aren't very proud of.

One of those.

Nonetheless, I still wonder what it was before 9/11, for comparison's sake.

 

[rexlunae]

I think there's good reason to be less proud of the country now than in the past. But I really wonder how the poll results would turn out if you limited the respondents to people with passports with at least one stamp in them. Really, what is there to be proud of?

 

[Rusha]

I think there's good reason to be less proud of the country now than in the past. But I really wonder how the poll results would turn out if you limited the respondents to people with passports with at least one stamp in them. Really, what is there to be proud of?

Currently ... nothing. America is currently on a downward spiral. We use to have allies. I can't imagine they will be so quick to come to our aid the *next* time WE need them.

 

[ok doser]

I can't imagine they will be so quick to come to our aid the *next* time WE need them.

"the next time" implies there's been a previous time

there hasn't

 

[ok doser]

If you sort the poll results by party affiliation, you get some unsurprising results

In a nutshell, all the whiners are the whiny whiners who've been whining since their whiny candidate lost two years ago

 

[annabenedetti]

Reading about similar findings at Pew Research, I came across this short quiz:

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/news-statements-quiz/

You're asked to determine whether 10 statements are either fact or opinion.

I got 10 of 10 correct, which is nothing special, the statements are clear enough to be seen as one or the other. The scary part is that I did better than 73% of the 5000K+ respondents in recognizing the factual statements and better than 65% in recognizing the opinion statements.

This is why fake news is such a big deal - you don't have to agree with a statement to recognize whether it's fact or opinion, so either respondents forgot to set their personal opinion aside, they aren't able to identify one from the other, or they really did see opinion as fact and vice versa.

I looked at the party breakdown and it was an even split between Democrats and Republicans - 5 questions were answered correctly more often by Democrats, 5 by Republicans. Independents outscored both the other parties on 3 questions, and consistently placed better than at least one of the other two on every question.

 

[The Barbarian]

"the next time" implies there's been a previous time

there hasn't

How the French Saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats, Louis XVI, and the Success of a Revolution
“When General John Pershing landed in France exactly a century ago at the head of American forces, he exclaimed, 'Lafayette, nous sommes ici!' (Lafayette, we are here!). With clarity and verve, Tom Shachtman explains exactly what 'Black Jack' Pershing meant. Without the incalculable contributions of the French, the United States could not have survived its revolutionary break away from the mighty British empire. In How the French Saved America,Shachtman brings back to life an exciting cast of characters―king, soldiers and sailors, engineers, armorers and diplomats.”
―Willard Sterne Randall, author of Unshackling America: How the War of 1812 Truly Ended the American Revolution

 

[ok doser]

Ok, so next time we want to lead a revolution against the british, we won't be able to rely on french assistance (which was in their own self- interest)

Got anything more recent?