Where at least I know I'm free
by digby
Country pride
In addition to the 54% who are extremely proud to be an American, 27% say they are "very proud," 14% say they are "moderately proud," 4% are "only a little proud" and 1% state that they are "not at all proud."
While most Americans are proud to be an American, certain groups are especially likely to say they are extremely proud. "Extreme pride" rises for each succeeding age group, from a low of 43% among those under 30 to a high of 64% among senior citizens.
Extreme pride also varies regionally, from a high of 61% in the South to a low of 46% in the West.
Sixty-eight percent of Republicans say they are extremely proud to be an American, much higher than the 47% of Democrats who say the same. As usual, independents are in the middle, at 53%.
This is a dumb poll, I know. I think most people are "proud" of their country in some ways and not so proud in others. If they stop and think about it anyway.
Our Bill of Rights is a truly revolutionary document that really does explicate some guarantee of individual liberty (yeah, even the 2nd Amendment...) in a way that is matched by nobody else in the world. We're still arguing about what it means but it sets forth a set of principles that speak to human freedom and human rights. That's something to be proud of.
On the other hand, we violate so many of those principles what with the torture and the arbitrary executions and the inequality that as much as our ideals are bound up in that document, our reality is most often defined by our betrayal of them. The best we can say is that we're a work in progress.
Happy 4th everybody.
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