{"id":3781,"date":"2026-06-25T04:08:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T04:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3781"},"modified":"2026-06-25T04:08:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T04:08:05","slug":"new-polls-show-americans-complicated-feelings-about-the-country-250-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3781","title":{"rendered":"New polls show Americans\u2019 complicated feelings about the country, 250 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>\n            More than three-quarters of Americans think the country\u2019s founders would be disappointed with the US today, according to a Gallup poll released this week \u2013 one of several new surveys spotlighting the public\u2019s complicated feelings about the nation\u2019s legacy as it approaches its 250th anniversary.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3779\">US Air Force requested to bring back mandatory flu shots weeks before basic training outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Just 19% of Americans think that the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be pleased by the way the US has turned out, with 77% saying they\u2019d be disappointed. That pessimism is largely bipartisan: while Republicans currently take a slightly less dispirited view than Democrats, one-quarter or fewer across party lines think the founders would be pleased.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Gallup has been asking this question intermittently since 1999, and the latest reading is the most pessimistic yet.\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            \u201cWhile it\u2019s hard to know what the founders would make of America today, the poll is in keeping with a generally sour mood among the public today. Polls routinely show widespread dissatisfaction with the current state of the country.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Presidential historian Tim Naftali, however, thinks that if the signers of the declaration could witness the United States today, they\u2019d mostly be astonished.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cOur language is the same, our principles are the same, but this country is far more powerful, far more diverse, far richer in many respects than I think they could have ever imagined,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have surpassed the outer reaches of the most imaginative of them \u2026 I\u2019m sure they would just find us rather fascinating.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The public\u2019s view isn\u2019t all negative. Around 7 in 10 Americans say that, over the past 250 years, the country has had at least a fair amount of success in achieving its founding ideals.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Other findings from recent polls offer insight to how Americans see themselves and their country ahead of the semiquincentennial celebrations.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3773\">Trump\u2019s Capitol visit devolves into shouting match with GOP senator he helped oust in primary fight<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>Americans view the US with a conflicting mix of pride and concern. <\/strong>In  also released Wednesday, 66% of Americans say they\u2019re at least somewhat proud of who we are as a country, but just over half say they\u2019re optimistic about the nation\u2019s future as a democracy. And in a Fox News poll, voters are more likely to consider themselves patriotic than they are to say they\u2019re proud of the country today.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The public is almost universal in calling the right to vote and freedom of speech key to the country\u2019s national identity, per an AP-NORC poll. But just under half \u2013 including a majority of Democrats \u2013 see that freedom of speech as facing major threats.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>Pessimism about the country\u2019s direction isn\u2019t new, but it may be growing. \ufeff<\/strong>In a recent NBC survey, just 38% of US adults say they\u2019re confident that the United States\u2019 best years still lie ahead, down from 45% in a 1990 survey. And 78% of US adults say that the American Dream is harder to attain now than it was a generation ago, although that\u2019s not dissimilar from the 72% who said the same in a Roper poll taken more than 30 years ago.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            (Nostalgia for the country\u2019s earliest days isn\u2019t new either \u2013 in a 1947 Gallup poll, 13% of Americans said that the signing of the declaration was the US historical event they\u2019d most like to have been present for \u2013 the most popular choice and more than tripling the share who\u2019d have preferred to witnessed either the Gettysburg address or the Japanese surrender in World War II.)\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>Being an American means different things to different people. <\/strong>In  earlier this year, half of US adults, including most of those age 45 and older, said that being an American is an important part of how they think about themselves. A majority of younger adults, by contrast, said it wasn\u2019t something they thought much about.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Overall, 58% said it was important to discuss the nation\u2019s successes and strengths, with an identical 58% also saying it\u2019s important to discuss the country\u2019s flaws and failures.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>This year\u2019s Independence Day celebrations are more polarizing than in the past. <\/strong>President Donald Trump has put his mark on the country\u2019s 250th birthday plans. Per Marquette, 57% of Americans say they\u2019re at least fairly interested in the commemoration. That\u2019s similar to the share who expressed interest in the festivities in a Roper poll 50 years ago, ahead of the 200th anniversary of the declaration. But while there was no real partisan gap in 1976, Republicans today are 33 points likelier than Democrats to say they\u2019re interested.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3769\">Senior US General in Europe set to retire amid Hegseth\u2019s review of US support for NATO allies<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than three-quarters of Americans think the country\u2019s founders would be disappointed with the US today, according to a Gallup poll released this week \u2013 one of several new surveys spotlighting the public\u2019s complicated feelings about the nation\u2019s legacy as it approaches its 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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