Will the American dream last another 250 years?
The headline question was posed to viewers by CNN’s Michael Smerconish on his Saturday morning show. The results of his informal poll were 50.22 percent “no” and 49.78 percent voted “yes” – out of 57,586 respondents. A virtual tie. That is a very grim outcome – especially when you consider that the informal poll was taken on the Independence Day weekend.
We also now know which side is driving those sad numbers. CNN’s, numbers guru, Harry Enten, reported on what he described as a “dramatic collapse” of pride by Democrats – according to the latest Gallup poll. Only 36 percent of Democrats now say they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American – down from 87 percent in 2001. The high number can be attributed to the attack on the New York towers.
Among GenZ Democrats, the numbers are even worse. Only 24 percent are proud to be an American. That number does not bode well for the future of the nation.
According to Gallup, 98 percent of Republicans said they were very proud Americans back in 2001. Unlike the Democrats, GOP pride has remained in the high 80 to 90 percentiles during Republican and Democrat administrations. Democrat pride tends to be more partisan – fluctuating at which party holds the White House.
These fluctuations, however, are nothing compared to the plunge that began around 2012 — and has been in free-fall since President Trump came down the escalator. With a slight rebound during the Biden years. It does appear that only when Democrats are not in charge do they believe that the nation is worthy of pride and patriotism.
Beginning in the late 1960s, a more radical critique of America emerged on the left. The Vietnam War, Watergate, and systemic racial injustice led many to question not just American policy but the legitimacy of the American democracy itself. That may explain why those evergreen anti-government protests – including the violent ones – are a product of the Democratic Party’s left wing and feature iconic flag burning and desecration of American monuments.
This skepticism over American exceptionalism – the heart of patriotism — hardened over time, especially in academic and cultural institutions, where dubious narratives of oppression and systemic failure too often replaced those of opportunity and progress.
We can also recall when Michelle Obama famously – or infamously – said, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.” She made that statement in 2008 as her husband was campaigning for the presidency. Despite their privileged life – a truly only-in-America success story — she was never proud of her country when Barack was a college professor, a state senator, or a United States Senator?
This alienation is echoed in the rhetoric of other prominent progressive voices. Consider Elie Mystal, a justice correspondent (oh, the irony) for The Nation, who recently declared on The Joy Reid Podcast that “we [America] are the bad guys” on the world stage. Mystal called for international sanctions against the United States, likening America to such rogue states as North Korea and Iran. He argued that America is a “menace to peaceful people everywhere” and should be “rebuked” by the global community. Joy Reid, herself, echoed similar sentiments — often framing Republicans as inherently anti-American.
Members of “The Squad — Democratic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib—have also been sharply critical of American institutions. Omar once described America as “evil”. Tlaib has refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance – a drastic rebuke of her own congressional oath.
In the entertainment world, figures like Robert De Niro – who described America as a “failed experiment in democracy” — have used their platforms to express contempt for America – often with threats to renounce their citizenship and move abroad. In fact, television personalities Rosie O’Donnell and Eleanor DeGeneres have done just that.
This alienation of Democrats from the patriotic core – and the devotion to identity politics – has resulted in divisive tribalism. Americans increasingly identify more strongly with their political, racial, or gender identity than with their national identity. The idea of a shared American story—one that includes both triumph and tragedy—is being replaced by competing narratives. As the polling shows, Republicans tend to embrace national unity and assimilation, apart from partisan political differences. While Democrats see those differences as foundational.
This growing partisan chasm in patriotic sentiment is not just a cultural curiosity—it’s a profound indication of a nation struggling with its identity. The erosion of shared national pride has undermined the very idea of E Pluribus Unum— “out of many, one”—and has contributed to a climate where symbols like Old Glory, the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance are more divisive than unifying.
The Gallup poll is more than a data point—it’s a warning. If pride in being American becomes a partisan issue, then the very idea of America as a unified nation is at risk. The challenge of our time is not just political—it is existential. Will we remain a nation, or will we become a collection of tribes sharing a border but not a future?
This fragmentation is dangerous. A nation cannot survive without a sense of common purpose. Patriotism, properly understood, is not blind loyalty—it is the belief that a country is worth improving because it is worth preserving.
As we have now entered the 250th anniversary season – with the celebration of the American Army’s 250th anniversary on June 14th, and the kick-off for the yearlong celebration of America’s 250th anniversary culminating on July 4, 2026 – it seems a relevant question. It is something we, as a nation, should ponder and discuss as we celebrate America’s semi-quincentennial anniversary.
Is it too late for America to reunite? Can the American Republic survive another 250 years, as Michael Smerconish asked? I do not know – and that uncertainty is scary.
So, there ‘tis.
No. We will not last another 250 years unless we get rid of the democrats I’m not talking violence. I’m not trying to be danger Dunger.
Willie: do you really think calling me names advantages your arguments? Quite the opposite, it just shows how little you are. Tiny. Diminutive. You just have to know that if you magically rid yourself of all Democrats that your life would remain unchanged, right? We have had Democrats for almost 250 years; our founding fathers, Madison and Jefferson, were there at the founding: where was your party?
Why you feel you can only pick yourself up by putting others down is counterproductive to your life and goals. Do you wake up saying: “how can I be better today?” or “if only Democrats vanished, I could be better?”
I just can’t imagine that Democrats affect your life negatively. The numbers under Biden, Obama, Clinton and the rest seem to indicate a different story. Frankly, the danger you face is that we are all in this together, we are stronger united than divided, and if you can’t figure that out, we all fail. If you get rid of us, you fail. There is only one way forward, the same way that got us here ——- “we hold these truths to be SELF-EVIDENT……..”
We are a nation founded on ideas. This idea on yours is detrimental to those ideas.
Larry, and your point is?
If all your many words make any sense at all is dubious. It’s like Trump when he says his policy decisions are duh common sense.
Tariffs are his idea of common sense? Everyone knows tariffs don’t work the way he thinks. He is taxing the American consumers of goods imported and creating inflation.
Your idea, Larry the the liberal/progressive strain in America’s political philosophy is all doom and gloom is preposterous and gaslighting. The liberal philosophy is the one that provides reality based common sense policy to remedy conservative’s miscalculations and total lack of creativity and insight.
The economy in the U.S. is not set right or redirected toward solvency by Trump’s Trade War’s Tariff bombs. Wars cost the economy many times more than the proceeds from illegal and unconstitutional tariffs added to the Treasury Department’s money vaults.
If anything or any single damaging factor can be isolated that is detrimental to America’s future prospects enduring for 250 more years that factor is Trump and his absolute and total ignorance of what it means to be POTUS. In Trump 1.0 and so far in Trump 2.0 he and his administration has done the opposite of what is best for the country as a whole, but rather dug a hole and forced America’s future into it. His amazingly ugly and worst case bill is his mechanism the excavates a huge hole to plow American assets into and give future productivity the boot down to substrata level potential.
Trump’s business smart’s acumen didn’t save him from multiple bankruptcies in business how can he expect to comprehend America’s economy with its mass of moving parts. He hasn’t yet, is not now, and will never be capable of managing his own businesses. Certainly not the country’s economy. The man has always been out of his death foundering on the rocks of reality.
Now he is subjecting the country to the downward spiraling effects seen by price instability and market failures making product scarcity most probable and prices soaring. Our generation will problem not experience this country’s worst effects of decline. But Generation Z Larry likes so much, they will see the consequences of Trump’s last 4 tumultuous years when destruction is real in every aspect of American life
Larry, you’re a master of negativity centered on the left and the Democrats in your imagination. You follow in Trump’s pattern of thinking. He is the personification of what comes from spreading lies like crumbling concrete and building on that weak foundation with ever more lies. He lies so frequently his lies contradict the earlier lies he said. It’s become twisted in the extreme to the extent that lies his staff and administration make is normalized. The Press Corps eats the lies and can’t think straight when asking their questions. It’s right wing covid like virus of the brain. Trump is the spreader of the contagion killing objectivity and obscuring truth. For, in Trump no truth is found.
I did not read this story at first, but reacted to Willie’s silly instead. After I read AC’s piece, I went back and read it and have to agree with AC: a lot of words, the question, and no other ideas, recommendations, alternatives, or solutions suggested. And, of course, it’s all the Democrats as the Nixonian era author continues to lambast. It’s as if he’s seen the Epstein files and now says they don’t exist. Some interesting thoughts along the way, but of course, little proof beyond the author’s jaded observations. He really isn’t aging well as he reverts to his Nixonian youth and the establishment’s concepts of that era. He reminds me not of my father, but of some from my father’s generation scolding us for our social stances and tax/spend philosophies while outspending us on the silliest things like deporting landscapers, carpenters, and painters whose criminality is a border-jumping misdemeanor worth a $250 fine. He probably stands for “cut your hair” and the like policies.
I love what America is and what America stands for. I have proven that for half a millennium in words, actions, and deeds. That does not stop me, or should it, from being critical which can be even more patriotic. I have protested; I have never condoned or acted upon violent protests. I can’t imagine but being anything but very proud of America and being American. That does not mean I bave to be proud of some aspects and some things we have done. And, as the founders intended, I speak out. I speak DANGER, and I am FRANK (albeit long-winded). I believe the founders spoke to the goodness in that.
For example, I am proud that Trump found Medicaid fraud and made a spectacle of it. I am not proud of Donald Trump’s America and just cannot understand the author’s blind allegiance to this felon who wants to be King. I have good reasons to substantiate that starting with our secret police that disappear people to foreign death camps that we now fund. The author supports masked, jack-booted thugs, prowling our streets with rights to deport any non-white, even faster with tats. If Democrats did that, he would advocate the 2nd amendment. The author’s fealty supports stripping and gutting the Federal Government without transparency and with no thought to meritocracy —- as was promised. If Democrats did that, the author might advocate storming the Capitol to stop it. It’s been done before. I don’t see, like the author, patriotism in taxation without representation as practiced in the Trump World Tariff Wars. Our Congress did not approve or allocate that tax which is now high enough to cause inflation. You know what the author did when Biden had inflation.
I also have lots of little ones like skipping due process, forgetting habeas corpus, breaking the rule of law, lies, incompetency, abound. “we have the Epstein client list.” No we don’t. “Biden, Comey, and Obama corrupted the list.” But we won’t show you that. But one that astounds me that Republicans accept is doing horrible distasteful things for “good TV” to put fear and loathing in our citizens and those thinking of immigrating here. We advertise the joys of Alligator Ally as if proud when we put strangers in pain just for advertising effect. I think America is better than that.
Ask yourself: would Texas have lost less life if NOAA’s staff had not been gutted or if FEMA had responded promptly. Or even answered the phone on that fateful night. That’s on Trump’s watch. Apparently, Noem even implemented a requirement for her to sign off on $100,000 expenditures sure to slow things down when it’s most needed to speed them up. The dollar amount and centralized process is stupid, especially in a disaster where you have people on the ground, close to the affected, make big decisions rapidly to save lives. Not wait for decisions from inside the beltway. Stupid. Incompetent. Inexperienced. She did not release flood teams until 72 hours after the disaster. Does the author demand that we stand and salute this shit? Or only what he tells us to?
I will not march to the beat of another’s drum. My party or yours. I will not march in unison with anyone. You cannot browbeat me, or force me to give up this freedom, especially by calling me unpatriotic. I just say: consider the source. You can call me a commiecrat, or worse, it does not stop me, never will. My words are true, speak the truth, are supported by facts, UNTIL you can prove different. That’s rare around these parts.
The author spews: “Only 36 percent of Democrats now say they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American – down from 87 percent in 2001. The high number can be attributed to the attack on the New York towers.” The author admits this is skewed by the 9/11 moment of patriotism, by all sides fyi, but the author lets it roll and does not even try or mention the average over the years will be a completely different statistic than the skewed-to-the-high-side for spin: 87%. That’s called spin. Purposeful spin.
And this stat is for “proud,” not will we last another 250 years to which EVERY Democrat might have said YES. Or No. We just don’t know and the author is not telling because he too, does not know.
“According to Gallup, 98 percent of Republicans said they were very proud Americans back in 2001. Unlike the Democrats, GOP pride has remained in the high 80 to 90 percentiles during Republican and Democrat administrations.” Ask yourself: might Republicans just be mindless sheep marching in unison towards the cliff. Like lemmings. We don’t know. The author is not telling.
What the author, in his jaded view of Democrats and the American political demographics, completely leaves out is that Independents follow the Democrats lead, albeit higher, but the same pattern of rising and falling according to party in power. That means that 28% are Republicans having the patriotic feelings the author mentions, marching in unison, forcing assimilation all the way. And 71% of all Americans feel similar to the stats the author ascribes to Democrats alone. One might conclude that Republicans are the outlier having fringe feelings contrary to the majority of America that is mad e up of Independents and Democrats. The author feels Democrats are wrong: it appears he is in the minority in that thinking. Perhaps if he started listening……
BUSTED: There is usually a problem when you leave Independents out of the equation as the weak-minded are like to do in their battle of good versus evil, evil described as Democrats.
I am not sure where the author is going with this and what he expects. Does he want to rid us of Democrats (and a lot of Independents) OR does he want Democrats (and a lot of Independents) change into Republicans so we can all don blue suits, white shirts, red ties, and march in unison singing the same old sitcom song. “Identical cousins and you’ll find, “they laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike. You can lose your mind.” I think it fits.
I spell my name: danger. And I am a frank and present danger.