Back in the early 2000s, right after the towers fell and the country pulled on its boots, polling showed Americans of both stripes were about as proud to be here as a kid with a new bike. Eighty-five, ninety percent, sometimes more, saying they were extremely or very proud to be American. Republicans a hair higher, Democrats right there with them. Flags everywhere, “God Bless America” on the radio, the whole deal. You could walk into a bar in Boston or Biloxi and not start a fistfight over whether the place was worth defending.
Fast-forward to a 2025 poll taken right before the fireworks: overall pride in being American hits a record low of 58 percent extremely or very proud. Republicans? Still clocking in at 92 percent, up from the year before. Democrats? A miserable 36 percent, down from 62 percent the previous year. Independents limping along at 53 percent. The gap is fifty-six points and looks like it was carved with a chainsaw. Young Democrats are even worse—recent youth surveys put their pride at around 24 percent, with more than half saying they’re embarrassed. Republicans the same age? Seventy-six percent proud. It is no longer a difference of opinion. It is two different countries sharing real estate.
The Numbers That Make You Rub Your Eyes
Go back to the first big surveys after 9/11. Both parties north of 85 percent extremely or very proud. Through the Bush years the numbers stayed high, with only modest dips. Democrats might grumble about Iraq, but they still waved the flag on the Fourth. Then came the slow slide after 2015, accelerating hard once Trump showed up the first time. Democrats’ pride cratered into the twenties and thirties during his term, bounced back a bit when their guy was in the White House, then fell off the cliff again the moment Trump returned in 2025. Republicans? Rock solid, usually above 85 percent, hitting 92 percent now. They treat the country like it is their team that just won the Super Bowl. The other side treats it like the team that owes them money and keeps parking in their spot.
A February 2026 survey asked people in their own words why they feel the way they do. Republicans talk about freedom, opportunity, the military, the sheer miracle that a bunch of farmers and merchants told King George to shove it. Democrats? A lot of them mention the current administration the way you’d mention a rash. “Nothing to be proud of currently.” “Since the reelection of Trump I’m not proud at all.” One woman said she was proud because Americans are free to call the president a dictator. That is not patriotism. That is performance art with better catering.
GALLUP POLL: 36% of Democrats vs 92% of Republicans proud to be an American pic.twitter.com/oudNyL6lOm
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 30, 2025
How the Love Affair Turned Sour
The split did not happen because Republicans suddenly discovered apple pie. It happened because one party decided the pie was baked on stolen land by problematic bakers. The turning point was the long march through the schools, the newsrooms, the entertainment factories, and the nonprofit world. Kids started learning that 1776 was less about liberty and more about who owned whom. Textbooks that once celebrated the Constitution now spent more ink on every flaw than on every triumph. By the time the 2010s rolled around, a generation had been taught that America is not the last best hope of Earth but the root cause of most of its problems—racism, sexism, the weather, you name it.
Add in open borders that turned “nation” into a suggestion, climate lectures that painted every American pickup truck as a crime against the planet, and identity politics that told people their grievances mattered more than the shared story that holds the place together. When Trump came down the escalator in 2015 and said the country was worth saving, half the country heard “Make America Great Again” and the other half heard “Make America White Again.” The second half decided the whole experiment was irredeemable. Resistance became the new patriotism—resistance to borders, to cops, to merit, to the very idea that the United States has something special going on.
The summer of 2020 poured gasoline on it. Cities burned, statues toppled, “mostly peaceful” became a punchline, and the party that once ran on working-class pride ran on defunding the police and tearing down the founders. Pride in America became a partisan tell. If you still loved the place, you were probably voting red. If you spent your time apologizing for it, blue.
The 2025 Plunge and What It Really Means
Trump wins again, and suddenly Democratic pride drops like a safe off a roof—62 percent to 36 percent in one year. Republicans go the other way. It is not complicated. One side sees the return of energy independence, secure borders, and “America First” as proof the country still works when you stop sabotaging it. The other side sees it as proof the country is irredeemable because the wrong people are in charge. When your team loses, you do not root for the country. You root for the collapse so you can say you were right all along.
This is not healthy. A country where half the population thinks its own success is shameful is a country that will not stay successful for long. Young people especially are marinating in this stuff. College grads who cannot name the three branches of government but can recite every microaggression in the Declaration of Independence. No wonder they are embarrassed.
What Went Wrong, and the Way Back
What went wrong is simple: one party stopped believing the American story. They replaced e pluribus unum with every group for itself. They taught kids to see the past as a horror show instead of a hard-won miracle. They decided borders are bigotry and exceptionalism is arrogance. The result is a chunk of the electorate that loves Sweden in theory but cannot bring itself to love the imperfect, loud, flag-waving, cheeseburger-eating republic that actually exists.
The fix is not complicated either. Teach the real history—flaws and all, but with the emphasis on the flaws being fixed by the same principles that created the country in the first place. Secure the border so “American” means something again. Celebrate the factories coming back, the energy boom, the fact that this is still the place where the world’s strivers want to go. Stop apologizing for winning. And maybe, just maybe, remind the other side that you do not have to love every politician to love the country that lets you vote the bums out.
America did not change. One party did. The rest of us are still here, still proud, still betting on the greatest country on Earth. The flag is still flying. The barbecue is still hot. And as long as 92 percent of one party—and a growing slice of everyone else—keeps showing up for the fight, the game is not over. It is just getting interesting.