The percentage of liberals who say they are “extremely proud” to be an American has plunged by a third since 2016, according to a new survey by Gallup.
In contrast, the percentage of conservatives who say they are extremely proud to be Americans remained stable during President Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure and has risen by only a few points since Donald Trump’s election in 2016.
In January 2016, 36 percent of liberals said they were extremely proud to be Americans. In mid-June, just 23 percent of liberals said they were extremely proud of being Americans, said the Gallup survey.
In contrast, 61 percent of conservatives said they were extremely proud to be Americans in early 2016. In mid-June, 65 percent of conservatives said they were extremely proud of being Americans.
The ideological gap in attitudes expended from 26 points in early 2016 to 42 points in mid-2018.
The drop in pride among liberals also dragged down the overall ratings among Democrats. The percentage of Democrats who say they are extremely proud of being Americans dropped by 11 points, from 44 percent in early 2016 down to 32 percent in mid-2018. The percentage among Republicans, however, climbed from by 6 points, from 68 percent to 74 percent.
The sharpest drops in pride were among women, non-whites young people, and college graduates.
However, pride among the youngest group dropped rapidly from 2013 to 2015, even before Trump was elected president.
Among college graduates and women, the drop occurred after Trump’s election.
Gallup said the shifts in attitudes are making U.S. politics more polarized:
Fewer than half of U.S. adults are extremely proud to be Americans, something that had not been seen in the prior 17 years Gallup has asked the public about its national pride. Politics appears to be a factor, with sharp declines evident among Democrats and political liberals and no decrease among Republicans and conservatives. Left-leaning groups’ antipathy toward Donald Trump and their belief that other countries look unfavorably on the president are likely factors in their decline in patriotism, particularly the sharp drops in the past year. But the declines began before Trump was elected.
National pride may be just one of a growing number of issues — including opinions about guns, labor unions and the environment — for which party loyalties are pushing Democrats and Republicans to adopt divergent views. These changes are making each party’s base more homogenous but increasingly different from one another.