By Glynn Wilson –

America will be celebrating independence in a few weeks on July 4 and holding an election in a few months on Nov. 3, so this seems like a good time to assess where we are psychologically after three and a half months of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession, as well as mass protests.

The Gallup poll released a new report on American pride Monday and the outlook is not great, unless you are Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who is happiest when the American people are divided against themselves.

Donald Trump ran for president promising to “make America great again,” and since he is up for reelection, this is one way to rate how he’s doing.

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According to Gallup, only 21 percent of people in the United States say they are “very proud” to be an American, and only 42 percent say they are “extremely proud.” Another 15 percent say they are “moderately proud” to be an American, while 12 percent say they are “only a little proud” and 9 percent say they are “not at all proud.”

These are the lowest numbers in Gallup polling history.

“American pride has continued its downward trajectory reaching the lowest point in the two decades of Gallup measurement,” Gallup concludes.

This does not look good for the president’s reelection chances, on top of our report from last week showing that his job approval dropped below 40 percent.

In addition, Gallup’s surveys conducted May 28-June 4 found that only 20 percent of Americans say they are “satisfied” with the way things are going in the U.S., coming at a time when the country faces public health and economic crises brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest following the death of George Floyd in police custody, and the numbers were sparked at least in part by President Trump’s “controversial” responses to them, according to Gallup.

“The percentage of Americans expressing extreme pride in the country has been declining over the past 20 years, especially recently,” Gallup says in its analysis of the numbers.

One might ask who the 20 percent are who say they are satisfied. Perhaps Gallup should reveal some information about this demographic group. Are these simply rich people who have no problem isolating themselves and have no fear of falling through the economic cracks? Are they anarchists and chaos monkeys who love it when the country, the government and society is crumbling into disorder and catastrophe? Enquiring minds want to know.

By comparison, 55 percent of people in the U.S. said they felt extreme pride in the initial January 2001 reading, prior to the terrorists attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, while those numbers spiked in the next three years hovering between 65 and 70 percent. By 2005, that reading fell to 61 percent and remained steady until 2015, when it dropped to 54 percent on the eve of the 2016 election.

Republican Pride Falls

In somewhat surprising findings, the latest poll reveals a 9-percentage-point decrease in the national pride felt by Republicans, surprising since Republicans have consistently expressed higher national pride over the past 20 years than Democrats and independents. While Republicans still report more acute pride than Democrats and independents, according to Gallup, “this marks the largest year-over-year decline in the percentage of Republicans who say they are extremely proud.”

Are Republicans finally beginning to jump from the sinking Trump ship like rats leaping overboard from the Titanic?

“Expressions of national pride have become politicized in recent years, much like U.S. attitudes on other issues such as climate change and labor unions,” Gallup points out. “Much of this has occurred since Trump became president in 2017, with Democratic pride falling off dramatically since then.”

In 2019, there was a record 54-point gap in the percentage of Republicans and Democrats who said they were extremely proud to be Americans. The gap is narrower this year — 43 points — because of the decline in Republican pride, according to Gallup.

This partisan divide in national pride “remains much larger than before,” Gallups says, a commentary on the affect Trump is having on dividing Americans as opposed to uniting them.

An analyst might reasonably ask: Is this the payback Putin wanted from Trump for helping him win the election in 2016?

American Pride Down in All Demographic Groups

Since 2016, according to Gallup, extreme pride is down among all major subgroups, including women, Democrats, young adults between the ages of 18 and 29, college graduates and nonwhites. Even the extreme pride found among whites has fallen below 50 percent for the first time ever.