The United States certainly has been in the midst of some trying times of late, but this sort of adversity was once considered a challenge for Americans – not a defeat. Never a defeat.
We’re a nation with no quit. We see trouble as a stepping stone; a lesson to be learned and applied to the next mess. Hell, we overthrew the most well-established government by defeating the most powerful army in the world, all because we didn’t want to pay extraneous taxes…particularly on tea.
We’ve always been ready to right our wrongs, in other words.
But this 4th of July, a new poll seems to suggest that Americans aren’t as proud as they once were, and by a fairly shocking margin.
The 38% of U.S. adults who say they are “extremely proud” to be American is the lowest in Gallup’s trend, which began in 2001. Still, together with the 27% who are “very proud,” 65% of U.S. adults express pride in the nation. Another 22% say they are “moderately proud,” while 9% are “only a little” and 4% “not at all” proud.
Some believe the missing morale was due to a glut of turbulence throughout the nation.
This record-low level of extreme national pride comes at a challenging time in the U.S. as a pandemic-weary public is struggling with the highest U.S. inflation rate in more than four decades. These data are from a June 1-20 poll that was conducted after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, claimed 31 lives, including 19 children. Bipartisan gun legislation in response to the shootings was passed shortly after the poll ended. The polling also preceded the U.S. Supreme Court’s highly anticipated and controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
Of course, the spirit of America is to face these challenges head-on, as we always have. What’s different these days is that advent of the mainstream media, and their dependence upon angry, divided Americans to make their money. We’ve been coerced into these feelings by the media’s reaction to the issues, not by the issues themselves.
