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Happy Fourth of July! Record-low numbers are proud to be American

Chris Graham
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Gallup’s measure of our national pride is at its lowest level since the polling firm began measuring national pride back in 2001.

Thirty-eight percent of us are “extremely proud” to be American, another 27 percent are “very proud.,” 22 percent are “moderately proud,” 9 percent “only a little” proud, and 4 percent are “not at all” proud.

To be honest, that only 4 percent are in the “not at all” proud category probably reflects some polling bias, given how things are going right now.

Inflation is at its highest level since the 1970s. News headlines tell us every day about another mass shooting. The Supreme Court has turned the clock back to the 1850s.

Oh, and then there’s the whole American democracy seeming to be on its last legs thing.

Perhaps not surprisingly, self-identified Republicans lap the field in feeling “extremely proud,” with 58 percent of them reporting that they feel that way.

Thirty-four percent of independents and 26 percent of Democrats report feeling “extremely proud.”

At the bottom of the ladder, it’s not Democrats bunching up in the “not at all” category. Their number there is at 4 percent, with independents at 5 percent, and Republicans at 3 percent.

Self-ID’d Democrats, who you wouldn’t blame for not feeling all that good right now, given how the Supreme Court has just bombed us all back to the Stone Age, are just more likely to be “moderately proud,” at 32 percent.

Twenty-three percent of independents and 11 percent of Republicans are similarly “moderately proud.”

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].