I can’t do much to change the median or mode, but BY GOD I will do what I can to change the mean. (And that’s with full acknowledgment of our failings. Even with those failings, our potential is IMMENSE.)
I'm 78 and thus remember our 200th Birthday in 1976 very well when I was 28. The overall tone of the country was radically different then, and not because all was perfect.
Nixon had resigned in disgrace just two years earlier, and the US final exit from Vietnam had ended with the debacle of helicopters pulling the last troops off our Embassy roof just one year earlier.
AND YET almost everyone was joyous, with celebrations in every city and state.
Not so today. I blame both the MSM AND our education system, who emphasize every fault of America while minimizing all of the ENORMOUS positives of our great country.
I think the bigger difference is that Gerald Ford didn't try to hijack the occasion and give it a highly partisan emphasis, and especially didn't try to make it be about him personally. As long as Trump is doing those things, it's going to be tough to ask the many Americans who don't approve of him to mood-affiliate positively with it.
I agree with your description of 1976 (I'm 2 years younger than you) but I disagree with your attempt to blame the current lack of patriotism on the MSM or our education system. America can only improve if it recognizes its flaws, and an acknowledgement of those flaws does not make one less patriotic. I have always considered myself to be patriotic, while at the same time recognizing the ways in which I think we can do better.
I place a lot of the blame for the current decline in patriotism on the administration, for 2 reasons. 1. The left believes that Trump's immigration policies are shameful, racist, and unAmerican, which makes it hard for them to be proud of this country. 2. Trump deemphasizes the values that, in the view of the left, are quintessentially American, and the things we should be most proud of: Our global support for human rights and democracy. In particular, his threats to invade Greenland, his refusal to support Ukraine, and his dramatic cuts in foreign aid to African nations all weaken the left's pride in America.
- The left believes *America* itself is racist, and Trump’s first election was “proof” of this, leading to ahistorical nonsense like the 1619 Project
- The left no longer believes in free speech for all Americans, only the ones they agree with
Trump is also bad on both of these counts, and many more, but this was a difference of degree, and slightly of kind, for Republicans since the Southern Strategy; treating other Americans poorly is their brand. Democrats abandoning pride in America, and bedrock principles like free speech (and innocent until proven guilty, see the Dear Colleague letter on Title IX from 2011)
My “WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!!!” sign might have no effect in the real world, but maybe you’ll take a step back and realize that you’ve taken what “a recognition of flaws” well past self-reflection and into the self-flagellation of “what do we have to celebrate, anyway?”
A little pride in one's nation is fine when warranted, but extreme or even blind patriotism--no matter the nation in question--is at best naive, and at worst dangerous. If someone's level of pride never wavers regardless of the policies or actions of their government, that does not seem healthy.
I can’t tell you how often I see criticisms of “blind patriotism” these days, and they usually come from people who seem to think that all patriotism is blind. FFS, what in “extremely or very proud” translates to a “blind” patriotism that you’re rooting against?
It’s just another datapoint for me and fellow liberal Democrats warning about turning American history into one gigantic guilt trip.
It makes me want to hand a banner from my house saying “WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!” but my less online neighbors probably wouldn’t know what I was so pissed about.
The media and politicians struggling to get noticed are driving those numbers. Retake the survey next week after folks are reminded what it means to be an American.
I'm skeptical of asking people to grade themselves. The folks who rate themselves most generous are rarely the ones picking up the check. "Proud to be an American" is worse than most self-report items, because pride doesn't map to attachment. I can love my kids and not be proud of how they're acting. A soldier can be proud of her unit and hate its lieutenant and what it's ordered to do.
The cross-country comparison is even shakier, because expressing pride is itself culturally regulated. Germany's famously low numbers reflect a postwar taboo on saying you're proud to be German, not weak attachment. Jordan's 97% reflects a norm running the other way, plus well-known cultural differences in acquiescence and extreme responding. Comparing the U.S. to Britain on a pride scale is comparing thermostats, more than temperatures.
Better to watch what people do with their money and their lives. Morse and Shive ("Patriotism in Your Portfolio") showed patriotic countries overweight home-country stocks even after controlling for the boring explanations — and U.S. home bias has fallen substantially since the 1990s. Konrad and Qari found patriots cheat less on their taxes, and countries with more patriotic "warm glow" run smaller shadow economies. Kang and Rockoff measured WWI patriotism as the below-market yield Americans swallowed on Liberty Loans — the cleanest costly signal on record, though it requires a war.
Military enlistment is the classic behavioral measure, and superficially it confirms the decline: four straight years of recruiting shortfalls. But raw enlistment numbers swing with the labor market, and eligibility has cratered for reasons that have nothing to do with sentiment. The 2025 "rebound" proves the point: the Army beat a bigger goal four months early after raising entry pay from under $22,000 to nearly $28,000 and fattening bonuses. Don't count the recruits; check the price of a recruit. That price has soared.
Exit measures fail the same way — citizenship renunciations are countable, but the post-2010 spike is a FATCA tax story, not disaffection. And flag sales and displays, once a decent proxy, is now partisan-coded: flying one measures your party, not your country. Same contamination as the survey question.
I'm inclined to measure patriotism in prices, not self-reports. The yield concession on war bonds. The diversification cost of home bias. The bonus needed to fill the ranks. By the recruiting-price measure, American patriotism really has gotten more expensive — the Pentagon is paying retail for what it used to get wholesale. By most of the others, the polls can't distinguish declining love of country from declining approval of whoever happens to be running it.
I do wonder about, and I hate to call it this, “hidden” patriotism. It seemed that sometime around 2015 it became the sophisticated view to anti patriotic. Patriotism was seen as something stupid gullible people believed in while educated sophisticated people knew better. Most of the liberal educated people I know think patriotism is morally wrong either in the U.S. or anywhere. Still, I wonder if that taboo has made it more likely that people would just shift from “extremely” to “not very” proud to be American. Maybe not but it does seem strange that Dems were less patriotic under Obama than Bush.
I think there are a lot of old, angry, very online people that like to answer polls. If you look at young millennials and Gen Z, they tend to be very patriotic.
One other thing (I’m so pissed right now): During his book tour for The Invisible Bridge, Rick Perlstein lamented that America refused to “grow up” by celebrating the Bicentennial earnestly.
Well Rick, thanks to you and many others, looks like you’re getting your wish this time. I hope you’re happy.
I can’t do much to change the median or mode, but BY GOD I will do what I can to change the mean. (And that’s with full acknowledgment of our failings. Even with those failings, our potential is IMMENSE.)
I'm 78 and thus remember our 200th Birthday in 1976 very well when I was 28. The overall tone of the country was radically different then, and not because all was perfect.
Nixon had resigned in disgrace just two years earlier, and the US final exit from Vietnam had ended with the debacle of helicopters pulling the last troops off our Embassy roof just one year earlier.
AND YET almost everyone was joyous, with celebrations in every city and state.
Not so today. I blame both the MSM AND our education system, who emphasize every fault of America while minimizing all of the ENORMOUS positives of our great country.
I think the bigger difference is that Gerald Ford didn't try to hijack the occasion and give it a highly partisan emphasis, and especially didn't try to make it be about him personally. As long as Trump is doing those things, it's going to be tough to ask the many Americans who don't approve of him to mood-affiliate positively with it.
I agree with your description of 1976 (I'm 2 years younger than you) but I disagree with your attempt to blame the current lack of patriotism on the MSM or our education system. America can only improve if it recognizes its flaws, and an acknowledgement of those flaws does not make one less patriotic. I have always considered myself to be patriotic, while at the same time recognizing the ways in which I think we can do better.
I place a lot of the blame for the current decline in patriotism on the administration, for 2 reasons. 1. The left believes that Trump's immigration policies are shameful, racist, and unAmerican, which makes it hard for them to be proud of this country. 2. Trump deemphasizes the values that, in the view of the left, are quintessentially American, and the things we should be most proud of: Our global support for human rights and democracy. In particular, his threats to invade Greenland, his refusal to support Ukraine, and his dramatic cuts in foreign aid to African nations all weaken the left's pride in America.
- The left believes *America* itself is racist, and Trump’s first election was “proof” of this, leading to ahistorical nonsense like the 1619 Project
- The left no longer believes in free speech for all Americans, only the ones they agree with
Trump is also bad on both of these counts, and many more, but this was a difference of degree, and slightly of kind, for Republicans since the Southern Strategy; treating other Americans poorly is their brand. Democrats abandoning pride in America, and bedrock principles like free speech (and innocent until proven guilty, see the Dear Colleague letter on Title IX from 2011)
My “WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!!!” sign might have no effect in the real world, but maybe you’ll take a step back and realize that you’ve taken what “a recognition of flaws” well past self-reflection and into the self-flagellation of “what do we have to celebrate, anyway?”
...Good?
A little pride in one's nation is fine when warranted, but extreme or even blind patriotism--no matter the nation in question--is at best naive, and at worst dangerous. If someone's level of pride never wavers regardless of the policies or actions of their government, that does not seem healthy.
I can’t tell you how often I see criticisms of “blind patriotism” these days, and they usually come from people who seem to think that all patriotism is blind. FFS, what in “extremely or very proud” translates to a “blind” patriotism that you’re rooting against?
It’s just another datapoint for me and fellow liberal Democrats warning about turning American history into one gigantic guilt trip.
It makes me want to hand a banner from my house saying “WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!” but my less online neighbors probably wouldn’t know what I was so pissed about.
The media and politicians struggling to get noticed are driving those numbers. Retake the survey next week after folks are reminded what it means to be an American.
I'm skeptical of asking people to grade themselves. The folks who rate themselves most generous are rarely the ones picking up the check. "Proud to be an American" is worse than most self-report items, because pride doesn't map to attachment. I can love my kids and not be proud of how they're acting. A soldier can be proud of her unit and hate its lieutenant and what it's ordered to do.
The cross-country comparison is even shakier, because expressing pride is itself culturally regulated. Germany's famously low numbers reflect a postwar taboo on saying you're proud to be German, not weak attachment. Jordan's 97% reflects a norm running the other way, plus well-known cultural differences in acquiescence and extreme responding. Comparing the U.S. to Britain on a pride scale is comparing thermostats, more than temperatures.
Better to watch what people do with their money and their lives. Morse and Shive ("Patriotism in Your Portfolio") showed patriotic countries overweight home-country stocks even after controlling for the boring explanations — and U.S. home bias has fallen substantially since the 1990s. Konrad and Qari found patriots cheat less on their taxes, and countries with more patriotic "warm glow" run smaller shadow economies. Kang and Rockoff measured WWI patriotism as the below-market yield Americans swallowed on Liberty Loans — the cleanest costly signal on record, though it requires a war.
Military enlistment is the classic behavioral measure, and superficially it confirms the decline: four straight years of recruiting shortfalls. But raw enlistment numbers swing with the labor market, and eligibility has cratered for reasons that have nothing to do with sentiment. The 2025 "rebound" proves the point: the Army beat a bigger goal four months early after raising entry pay from under $22,000 to nearly $28,000 and fattening bonuses. Don't count the recruits; check the price of a recruit. That price has soared.
Exit measures fail the same way — citizenship renunciations are countable, but the post-2010 spike is a FATCA tax story, not disaffection. And flag sales and displays, once a decent proxy, is now partisan-coded: flying one measures your party, not your country. Same contamination as the survey question.
I'm inclined to measure patriotism in prices, not self-reports. The yield concession on war bonds. The diversification cost of home bias. The bonus needed to fill the ranks. By the recruiting-price measure, American patriotism really has gotten more expensive — the Pentagon is paying retail for what it used to get wholesale. By most of the others, the polls can't distinguish declining love of country from declining approval of whoever happens to be running it.
I do wonder about, and I hate to call it this, “hidden” patriotism. It seemed that sometime around 2015 it became the sophisticated view to anti patriotic. Patriotism was seen as something stupid gullible people believed in while educated sophisticated people knew better. Most of the liberal educated people I know think patriotism is morally wrong either in the U.S. or anywhere. Still, I wonder if that taboo has made it more likely that people would just shift from “extremely” to “not very” proud to be American. Maybe not but it does seem strange that Dems were less patriotic under Obama than Bush.
I think there are a lot of old, angry, very online people that like to answer polls. If you look at young millennials and Gen Z, they tend to be very patriotic.
One other thing (I’m so pissed right now): During his book tour for The Invisible Bridge, Rick Perlstein lamented that America refused to “grow up” by celebrating the Bicentennial earnestly.
Well Rick, thanks to you and many others, looks like you’re getting your wish this time. I hope you’re happy.