Proof most Americans are proud of our nation, despite all our talk of falling patriotism

We hear so often that US pride is on the way out — that Americans don’t know anything about the country, they don’t particularly care for it, patriotism is falling as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday.

But a new survey turns those assumptions on its head, revealing most Americans essentially agree that we’re extremely fortunate and have something special to protect. Sure, there are some bad apples that denigrate our country (and get a lot of attention while they’re at it), but they’re far from representative.

In fact, a majority of Americans — including a majority of Gen Z, even — report being patriotic. Just a tiny fraction say they aren’t grateful to live in this nation.

“Americans are a lot more patriotic than people realize. People are more on the same page than people realize,” Emily Ekins, the public opinion researcher who conducted the survey, told The Post.

The poll of more than 2,000 American adults found the “overwhelming majority” of Americans actually share some pretty pro-American sentiment.

Two thirds (63%) of respondents said they are grateful to be Americans, compared with a minuscule fraction (2%) who were not at all grateful. 70% of Americans were at least moderately patriotic, and 45% very or extremely so.

And Gen Z — who often gets a bad rap, thanks to noisy members of the generation who take to the streets and social media to rag on the nation — also showed some American pride in the survey results. Just 9% said they were not at all patriotic, compared with a majority, 54%, who were at least moderately patriotic.

And yet, unfortunately, those are not the sorts of young people who attract all the attention. Instead, we so often talk about the sorts of agitators that burn American flags in Washington Square Park, or rip down our flag to raise the Palestinian flag, like students at City College of New York did in 2024.

Sure, Columbia students have posted “death to America” on their social media pages, and popular Gen Z influencers like Hasan Piker have said outrageous things like “America deserved 9/11” — but these are the nation’s squeaky wheels.

They don’t speak for the rest of us. And we shouldn’t let them.

“There is a small subset that is increasingly getting loud that has these really negative views of the country, but, like I said, they’re really a small subset that have a megaphone in media,” Ekins, Vice President for Policy at the Cato Institute, said.

Most normal people who aren’t too steeped in academic theory or social media rage bait have enough sense to realize that this nation is fundamentally a good one.

Only 10% of people polled had an unfavorable view of the founding of the USA. And almost everyone — fully 3 in 4 respondents — knew that the Constitution is very or extremely important for protecting their own freedom and liberty.

That said, there’s still progress to be made. Nobody living in the greatest nation in the world should be unsure of whether they have it good, or whether they should love their country. But some young people aren’t too certain.

Unfortunately, the survey found large generation gaps, like how 71% of Boomers have a strongly favorable view of the Constitution compared with only 29% of Gen Z, or how 69% of Boomers are very proud to be Americans compared with only 35% of Zoomers.

But this isn’t because young people have it any worse than their parents or grandparents. It’s because they’re not being taught about the country or why it’s so great.

Only 22% of 8th graders were proficient in civics, per the most recent survey by the National Survey of Academic Progress in 2022, and less than half of them had taken a class dedicated to civics education.

Etkins thinks the 250th anniversary of the nation could be “an opportunity to realize that our younger generations aren’t being taught basic civics [and] an opportunity for us to renew that civic knowledge.”

She’s right. Young people deserve to be taught the history of their own nation, and they should be empowered with knowledge of just how fortunate they are in the scheme of human history.

But, on America’s birthday, these results are also a reminder of another, very important thing: that, even in the era of social media, vicious partisanship, and divisive politics, most Americans stand on the common ground of love of their nation.

Let’s remember that fact, and stop allowing the anti-American agitators to taint our impression of our fellow countrymen and countrywomen.