As the U.S. 250th anniversary approaches, a new poll shows Americans are pessimistic about the nation's ability to continue existing as a single country in the long term.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that nearly 40 percent of Americans doubt the country will endure for another 250 years.
The survey noted that 38 percent of respondents gave such an answer. Democrats were a bit more pessimistic, with 40 percent saying the country would not last, while 26 percent of Republicans also believed the same thing.
The poll also found that most Americans are worried about democracy failing. Concretely, 85 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans agreed with the statement that American democracy was in danger of collapsing. Overall, two-thirds agreed with the statement, an increase compared to last year, when the figure was 57 percent.
The poll was not the only one that found Americans in less than a patriotic mood, despite the 250th anniversary celebrations.
An Associated Press-NORC poll earlier this year found that most citizens no longer believed in the American dream.
The poll defined the American dream as the notion that if you work hard, you can get ahead. Only a third of poll respondents said that the American Dream still held true. Half said that while the dream once was true, it no longer is, and 15 percent said that it never was true.
The survey found that Republicans are more than twice as likely as independents and Democrats to believe that the American Dream still holds true with 57 percent saying to, compared to 24 percent of independents and 17 percent of Democrats.
The Reuters poll comes despite ongoing celebrations for the nation's 250th anniversary. The poll was concluded on Monday, after a UFC event was held on the South Lawn of the White House this past weekend. The event went ahead despite lawsuits that attempted to stop it on the grounds that national landmarks were essentially being used as a marketing tool for a private, for-profit organization.
