A record-low 58% of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be an American, down nine percentage points from last year…
— from Gallup.com, June 30, 2025.
I’m not feeling very proud, lately, to be an American. Apparently, a lot of other people are experiencing the same loss of pride.
The folks at Gallup, Inc. surveyed a bunch of American adults by telephone — 1,000 of them, reportedly — and asked them some questions, including Question Number 8:
On a different topic, how proud are you to be an American — extremely proud, very proud, moderately proud, only a little proud, or not at all proud?
About 58% of the people surveys answered that they were “Extremely proud” or “Very proud”. Personally, I don’t understand what the difference is between “Extremely proud” and “Very proud”.
Or for that matter, what it means to be “Moderately proud.” Does that mean you’re only half as proud as the people who are “Extremely proud”? Or that you’re proud only four days of the week? I’ve always had the understanding that, either you’re proud of something, or you’re not. Kind of like, are you alive or are you dead? You can’t be “Moderately dead.”
And “Only a little proud” is an even stranger concept. It could possibly mean that you’re willing reveal your level of pride to an anonymous pollster, but you would never admit it to your co-workers at the office.
But whatever these terms actually meant to the people getting surveyed, it’s obvious that “Males” harbor more pride than “Females”. Almost twice as many women as men were willing to choose “Only a little proud”.
The Gallup pollsters also asked the respondents for their ages.
We are tempted to wonder if the 55+ respondents are more prideful because they’re older and wiser, or because they already own a big house and collect a pension.
Two-thirds of the youngest respondents couldn’t even admit to being “Very proud”. “Moderately” is the best they could muster, and a lot of them could barely manage “Only a little”. One out of six picked “Not at all”.
Makes you wonder what the future holds for America.
Gallup also asked about political affiliations.
In terms of clinging to pride in being an American, Republicans apparently stand head and shoulder above the rest of the country. And the poor Democrats! Only a third of them reported being “Extremely proud” or “Very proud”. I mean, I understand why the Democrats feel that way, but it’s still kind of sad.
Kind of sad, assuming that you think “pride” is a positive trait. But maybe it’s not?
As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t been feeling “Extremely proud” of being an American these past few months, and as I write this humor column and think about what it means to be “proud”, I have to ask myself: “Louis, are you becoming a young Democrat?” (Theoretically, I could also become a “young female Democrat” but that’s extremely unlikely to happen.)
One of the questions the Gallup pollsters didn’t ask the respondents:
“What religious tradition do you follow?”
And I can understand why they didn’t ask that. Because that could bring up unpleasant feelings, and perhaps even memories of reading, in Proverbs 16:
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.
I’m not claiming that Proverbs 16 is the God-given truth. But if it is, then things don’t bode well for Republicans.
Anyway, tomorrow will be July 4th, and a lot of people will be proudly waving American flags, and proudly wearing red, white, and blue, and proudly watching the fireworks in Yamaguchi Park.
Hopefully, they will not be sharing plunder.
It was kind of a dirty trick to conduct this survey right before the July 4th holiday, when patriotism ought to be flowing in every red-blooded American’s veins. Maybe that was just a careless oversight, or maybe — if you’re a Democrat — it doesn’t make a dang bit of difference.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.