American pride has fallen to a historic low just days before the United States marks its 250th anniversary, with new polling suggesting deep disillusionment over the country's direction under leaders including Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Two nationwide surveys released on Monday show Americans are markedly less proud of their democracy, less certain about their economic future and increasingly doubtful that the so‑called American dream still exists for people like them.
The latest findings come as the US prepares elaborate commemorations of its semiquincentennial, a moment that might once have been expected to produce a wave of patriotic feeling. Instead, an AP‑NORC poll conducted in April and published this week reports that pride in American democracy has dropped sharply over the past decade, while a separate Gallup survey records the lowest level of intense national pride since it began tracking the question in 2001. The two sets of data do not agree on everything, but together they paint a portrait of a country celebrating a milestone while questioning the story it tells about itself.
