Only 29% of Democrats say they are extremely or very proud to be American, compared with 90% of Republicans, based on a recent NBC poll. Among Americans aged 18-34, just 36% express strong pride in their country, compared with 75% among those over 65. Those numbers should concern anyone who understands history because they point to a crisis of confidence in the nation itself.
Most people blame Trump for dividing America, but the fracture began long before Trump entered politics. The split emerged during the Obama years as the Democratic Party gradually abandoned its traditional working-class foundation and embraced identity politics, globalism, and the expanding administrative state. The 2007.15 Economic Confidence Model turning point marked the beginning of a broader collapse in confidence across Western governments. The Great Recession weakened confidence and caused upheaval. The cohesion from the 9/11 Bush years had come to an end as war in the Middle East dragged on. By 2013 and 2014 the divisions were becoming increasingly visible. Trump’s election in 2016 did not create the divide. It exposed it.
What shocked the Democratic establishment was discovering that millions of Americans no longer shared the worldview being promoted by the media, academia, and Washington. Since then the separation has only accelerated. The old Democratic Party of labor unions, manufacturing workers, and middle-class families has increasingly been replaced by a coalition whose priorities are divisive identity politics.
People lost faith in Washington, but they still believed in America. The anger was directed toward politicians, bankers, and government institutions. Republicans blamed Democrats. Democrats blamed Republicans. The country was divided, but there was still a common identity underneath it all.
Then Trump arrived and the divide exploded. Politics stopped being about policy and became personal. COVID was the final nail in the coffin. Families stopped speaking to one another. Friendships ended, and neighbors viewed each other as enemies. Every election became a battle between good and evil. The left convinced itself that Trump supporters were destroying the country, while the right concluded that the establishment would do anything to remain in power. The left fractured and then divided as years of divisive race, gender, and sex-based policies caused the group to completely lose track of its messaging. The hostility reached levels not seen in modern American history.
Now we are witnessing another transformation. The divide is no longer simply between the left and the right. Increasingly, it is between the left and America itself. Look at the NBC numbers. Only 29% of Democrats say they are extremely or very proud to be American. Think about that for a moment. We are not talking about dissatisfaction with a president or Congress. We are talking about pride in the nation itself.
What makes this even more disturbing is that politicians have begun saying the quiet part out loud. We now have candidates openly declaring they do not support the United States, do not support the military, and look down on America itself. Twenty years ago such statements would have ended a political career overnight. It would have been unthinkable for either side to openly declare hostilities toward the nation they claim to represent. Universities have spent years teaching young people that America is uniquely evil, ironically shielding them from the realities of history. Activists portray the nation as fundamentally illegitimate. The result is exactly what this poll shows. A generation has been raised to believe that patriotism is evil while resentment toward their own country is somehow righteous.
A growing portion of society no longer believes America deserves to exist in its current form. The initial push boosted globalist morale, but we are left with a broken population that is too deep into self-loathing to be productive. This segment of the population is eager to vote for a pro-globalist, anti-America candidate because they want to see the nation fail. You are no longer debating tax rates or spending priorities. You are debating whether the country itself is worth preserving. That is a very dangerous place to be, and the poll numbers suggest we are moving deeper into that territory rather than away from it.