National pride is declining in America and its splitting by party lines: Gallup poll

WASHINGTON — Only 36% of Democrats say they’re “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, according to a new Gallup poll, reflecting a dramatic decline in national pride that’s also clear among young people.The findings are a stark illustration of how many — but not all — Americans have felt less of a sense of pride in their country over the past decade.The split between Democrats and Republicans, at 56 percentage points, is at its widest since 2001.That includes all four years of Republican President Donald Trump’s first term.Only about 4 in 10 US adults who are part of Generation Z, which is defined as those born from 1997 to 2012, expressed a high level of pride in being American in Gallup surveys conducted in the past five years, on average.That’s compared with about 6 in 10 Millennials — those born between 1980 and 1996 — and at least 7 in 10 US adults in older generations.“Each generation is less patriotic than the prior generation, and Gen Z is definitely much lower than anybody else,” said Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup.

“But even among the older generations, we see that they’re less patriotic than the ones before them, and they’ve become less patriotic over time.That’s primarily driven by Democrats within those generations.”America’s decline in national pride has been a slow erosion, with a steady downtick in Gallup’s data since January 2001, when the question was first asked.Even during the tumultuous early years of the Iraq War, the vast majority of US adults, whether Republican or Democrat, said they were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American.

At that point, about 9 in 10 were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American.That remained high in the aftermath of the Sept.11, 2001, attacks, but the consensus around American pride slipped in the years that followed, dropping to about 8 in 10 in 2006 and continuing a gradual decline.Now, 58% of US adults say that, in a downward shi...