A new poll has found that pride in the U.S. has declined among Democrats under President Trump.
According to the Gallup poll, just 32 percent of Democrats say they are “extremely proud” to be American, down from the 43 percent who said the same in 2017.
{mosads}Confidence in the state of the country was already on the decline, even before Trump took office, according to the poll. In 2013, for example, 67 percent of Democrats were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, according to Gallup.
A new Gallup poll did find that Americans have been feeling better about their personal freedoms over the past year. According to the poll, in 2016, 75 percent of Americans felt satisfied with the freedom they had to choose what they do with their lives. In 2018, 87 percent felt more satisfied.
However, that number is still noticeably smaller than the percentage that felt happy with their personal freedom years ago. The same poll found that 91 percent of Americans in 2006 felt satisfied with their person freedoms.
While the decline was relatively small, according to Democratic pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners, part of the reason for it is likely that some Democratic voters feel less free under Trump.
“We believe that freedom is impacted by things like constraints on your insurance, constraints on your right to make personal decisions about what to do with your body, whether your family is going to be separated, whether your family is going to be deported,” Lake said during a July 4 episode of Hill.TV’s public opinion show “What America’s Thinking.”
Republicans’ pride in America has increased since Trump became president. But even under former President Obama, GOP voters were more likely to say they were “extremely proud” of the country than Democrats. In Gallup’s surveys, 71 percent of Republican voters said they were “extremely proud” of the country in 2013. Last June, 74 percent did.
According to Lake, while Republican and conservative leaders have historically used the word “freedom” in their rhetoric more than Democrats and liberals, she expects Democrats to start talking more about freedom in campaign messaging as Trump is able to make more of a stamp on American policy through his judicial nominations and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against labor unions.
“I think with Supreme Court nominations … you’re going to see Democrats talk about freedom a lot more,” she told host Joe Concha.
Expressed pride in the country has also declined among self-identified political independents. According to Gallup, last month marked the first time ever that a majority of Americans did not say they were “extremely proud” of their country.
The Gallup poll regarding pride in America was conducted June 1–13 with a sampling of 1,520 adults. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.
— Matthew Sheffield
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