A new poll released on the Fourth of July says 85% of Americans are still proud to be American.
According to a Gallup Poll released thursday, 85% of Americans are "extremely proud" of their nationality. Just 1% answered they were "not proud at all", a surprising number when many are constantly voicing their disapproval of the political decisions and economic state of the nation.
"This high level of pride in being an American has varied only moderately over the past 12 years since the question was first asked, but has been lower since 2005 than it was in the years prior,” pollster Frank Newport says in a release according to Daily News .
When the results are filtered by political party, 93% of Republicans compared to 85% of Democrats were "extremely proud" . However, despite the American pride, when asked "Overall, do you think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be pleased or disappointed with the way the United States turned out?" , 71% of Americans think they would be disappointed.
They might be correct. First President George Washington did state in his Farewell Address, "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism." . He believed political parties would the downfall of our society, and many of the Declaration signers shared the same views.
America is in a constant state of flux, with rates going up and down on a day to day basis. Any major event can flip the poll numbers. But it's definitely good to see that Americans are proud to be so.