As Townhall has covered at length, President Joe Biden's less than two years in office have seen America go through a number of devastating crises at home and abroad that gave people pause and reason to worry — both at home and overseas. From the deadly and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that saw Biden formally censured by U.K. Parliament to the ongoing inflation, supply chain, and energy crises that make our citizens struggle to make ends meet, Biden has put America and Americans in a tough spot.
Even though Americans, as always, have risen to the occasion and persevered, Biden's failed policies and ongoing unmitigated crises are taking a toll on the American spirit. The latest numbers released by Gallup just before the Independence Day weekend show that a shrinking number of Americans are proud of their country.
This Fourth of July, President Biden's second in office, saw just 38 percent — the lowest number of Americans ever since Gallup began tracking the question in 2001 — say they are "extremely proud" to be Americans. If you tack on the 27 percent who say they are "very proud" making for a majority — 65 percent — who say they're proud to be Americans.
Meanwhile, 22 percent reported being "moderately proud," 9 percent are "only a little" proud, and just 4 percent said they're "not at all" proud to be American.
As Gallup notes, the "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."
Gallup's tracker on American pride shows that, even though the number hit its low-point under Biden — the current levels are "well below the trend averages of 55% extremely proud and 80% extremely or very proud — patriotism has been declining among U.S. citizens since 2001.
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Still, the downward trend for American pride has accelerated recently, per Gallup:
Before 2015, no less than 55% of U.S. adults said they were extremely proud. The highest readings followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks when patriotism surged in the U.S.
However, extreme national pride in the U.S. has been trending downward since 2015, falling below the majority level in 2018; it is nearly 20 points lower now than it was a decade ago.
Broken down by political party, Gallup's numbers show that even historically more patriotic Republicans are losing their pride in America:
Republicans' pride in being American has consistently outpaced Democrats' and independents' since 2001 and does so today. However, Republicans' extreme national pride (58%) is now at its lowest point in the trend. Independents' extreme pride, at 34%, is likewise the lowest on record for the group.
After hitting a 22% low point in 2019, Democrats' extreme pride rose to 31% in 2021 at the start of Joe Biden's presidency, but it is down this year to 26%.
All three major party groups show double-digit declines in pride compared with 2013, with Democrats' 30-point decline the largest. The current 32-point gap in Democratic versus Republican pride is larger than the historical average though smaller than the record-high 54-point gap in 2019.
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