The Country the Young No Longer Believe In

As the United States prepares for a grand celebration of its 250th anniversary, a new NORC survey shows that fewer and fewer Americans still see their country as exceptional and still believe in its dream. Least of all the young.

Only about a quarter of respondents now say their country stands above all others in the world. Forty four percent consider it one of the best, alongside several others, and nearly three in ten now believe there are countries better than the United States. In a survey by the same institute in June 2016, only nineteen percent said that. Even the elected government is no longer seen by many as what defines the nation. Around two thirds of adults still say a democratically elected government is extremely or very important to the country’s identity, but in 2021 that figure had been eighty percent.

For many, the problem lies with the people placed into office. Politicians, they say, have damaged a system of government that was designed to guarantee representation and prevent abuses of power. The country is no longer what it once was, many say, and they believe the Founding Fathers would be disappointed by what it has become. Those who created the government with its coequal branches believed they had built barriers that would prevent one individual or one group from accumulating too much power. But they had not foreseen how easily those guardrails would give way once the people inside the system stopped protecting them. They would turn in their graves, many say, and be deeply disappointed in us. There is more constitutional theory in that sentence than in many textbooks. A constitution is not a machine that runs by itself. It holds only as long as people refuse to break it.

Doubt is also a matter of age. Among adults under thirty, forty four percent say there are better countries than their own. Among those over sixty, only twenty two percent say the same. And while eighty one percent of older Americans consider democracy an essential part of American identity, among younger Americans that figure is only about half. A country whose youth no longer believes in it faces a different future than one whose youth still does. The frustration extends beyond the younger generations. Kent Stage, sixty two, a registered Republican from Indiana, a retired Army noncommissioned officer and former Marine, does not believe the current system is capable of solving the country’s problems. He wants term limits and more working people in legislatures. He says he would trust an ambulance chasing lawyer and a shady used car salesman more than a politician. Officeholders, he says, make decisions for the benefit of their own families while ordinary people keep turning the old mill.

Many no longer believe in the country of opportunity either. About half of adults, fifty one percent, say the American Dream - the idea that hard work leads to advancement - may once have been true but no longer is. Just under a third believe it still applies, while fifteen percent say it never did.

Many Americans are now giving up their own apartments and renting rooms to save money. Only twenty two percent of those under thirty still believe the dream remains valid. Among those over sixty, the figure is forty six percent.

The divide also runs along party lines. Among Republicans, fifty seven percent say the dream still applies. Among independents, about one quarter say so, and among Democrats only seventeen percent. And while about half of Republicans place their country above all others, only seven percent of Democrats do. Quintin Sharpe, twenty eight, lives in the resort area of Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, works as a financial planner, and is a Republican. For him, the dream is still attainable, and he is proud of his country. It has been a great experiment, he says, and opportunity exists for anyone willing to work for it. He believes the country is a meritocracy where the best ideas and the strongest work ethic prevail regardless of background or skin color. He and his wife plan to celebrate the 250th anniversary with fireworks over the lake.

Belief in a shared culture is also fading. Slightly more than half, fifty six percent, say a shared American culture and common set of values are extremely or very important to the nation’s identity. In 2017, that figure was still sixty five percent. Younger Americans are less likely than older Americans to view a single value system as important. Yet Americans remain deeply divided over diversity. About half, fifty one percent, say it is extremely or very important that people from other parts of the world be able to come in order to escape violence or find opportunity, and fifty five percent say the same about the blending of cultures and values from around the world. But only about four in ten Republicans see that blending as essential to the country, compared with seventy six percent of Democrats.

Many also speak of an unease and tension lying just beneath the surface, directed especially toward Hispanics. Some people now carry documents proving their immigration status in case they are stopped. It becomes difficult to celebrate and to experience the America 250 festivities as something positive when the mood against immigrants and nonwhite communities has become so intense. Citizenship itself, people say, is now being questioned.

In the end, a nation is a belief a people holds about itself, and no fireworks can replace what has been lost of that belief. The celebration will be loud and the lights will glow above the lakes, and beneath them people will carry documents with them to prove that they belong here. Two hundred and fifty years after the beginning, a country is celebrating a promise its young people barely believe in anymore and whose guardians now leave a ninety three year old woman afraid. The Founders, as already mentioned, would turn in their graves. Perhaps that is the more precise way of saying that a promise does not die on the day it is broken, but on the day no one any longer expects it to be kept.