Poll: 71% Think Founders Would Be Disappointed in America

A Gallup poll released on July 4 shows that while the vast majority of Americans are very proud of being American – overall, 85 percent are either extremely or very proud – a huge percentage of Americans think the founding fathers would be disappointed in the way the country has turned out. A full 71 percent of Americans think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed, as opposed to only 27 percent who say that the founders would be pleased. The last time a bare majority of Americans thought that the founders would be pleased was 2003.

Both older and younger Americans were more likely to feel that the founders would be displeased, with 77 percent of Americans 65+ saying the founders would be disappointed, along with 70 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29. Americans from the Midwest and South were particularly adamant that the founders would be disappointed, as were conservatives (83 percent). Only 54 percent of liberals, by contrast, thought the founders would be disappointed, and 56 percent of Democrats.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).