Luxury beliefs and pride in America | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetcleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. So Gallup Polling has been asking a question about how proud are you to be an American? They've been asking this question for almost three decades now, and I can tell you that if I were to be asked this question, I would say, I am extremely proud to be an American. I recognize like there is probably no not probably there is. My belief is there is no better country and no better time ever than the time that I am alive right now, in the place that I am alive in modern America. The culture that we have, the society that has been built by all of the people who came before us, is an inheritance that is beyond measure in my view. And I know apparently a lot of Americans do not agree with me on that they are not proud to be American. That's what the polling shows. Thirty three percent, Only a third of Americans say they are extremely proud to be an American. I am in that thirty three percent. I am extremely proud to be an American. That is the lowest reading in Gallup's trend going all the way back to two thousand and one, so it has fallen too, a twenty five year record low. Another twenty percent of Americans say they are very proud. So if you add extremely proud with very proud, you get fifty three percent, which is a little bit better. I mean, I would prefer more people be extremely proud, but then again, I'm the kind of person that you know. We we display the American flag, so that's the that that's the kind of people we are. So we are, my wife and I we are proud to be Americans. Now, whether you are very proud or extremely proud, whatever, but I'm gonna lump those all together and say fifty three percent proud. Now there the other remaining answers were moderately proud. So you're only like, oh, yeah, moderately proud. That's twenty two percent, fifteen percent said only a little proud, and nine percent said not proud at all. All right, So if you want to lump in four of the five responses as various or varying degrees of pride, I guess we could do that, and you would end up with somewhere in the neighborhood of about nine out of ten Americans are proud to some extent. Only nine percent are not at all proud, okay, So if you want to look at the glasses half full, that's I guess how you could do that, Although it is kind of concerning that you've got a third of Americans say they're moderately or only a little proud. Now, when Gallup first asked this question in two thousand and one, fifty five percent of US adults said they were extremely proud. Okay, So we have gone from fifty five percent extremely proud to thirty three percent. Pride surged after nine to eleven. It went up to sixty five and then seventy percent expressing extreme pride. That was through two thousand and four. Extreme pride then declined after that, but it held at majority levels through two thousand and seventeen. Mmmm mmmmm. I feel like there's a clue in here, right, maybe a bit of a clue there about twenty seventeen where the numbers start declining, And. Yes, yes, that's that's what happened after Trump. Throughout the trend, Republicans have been more likely than Democrats and independents to say they are proud to be American. Even when Republican pride dipped during President Joe Biden's administration, Republicans remained the most likely of the three groups to express extreme pride. This according to Gallup, hardly a right wing polling outfit. Currently seventy percent of Republicans say they are extremely proud, so that's what's driving that number. The thirty three percent of adults of all US adults is driven by Republicans. Only twenty eight percent of Independents and fourteen percent of Democrats say they're extremely proud. Their pride levels are at new lows for their respective groups. This drop among Democrats is similar to their shift during Trump's first administration. I mentioned this the other day with a different set of polling, and this confirms that Democrats and a lot of quote independents, who, by the way, independence oftentimes have even more partisan leans than registered Democrats and Republicans. They vote more party line as independents quote unquote independence. But this confirms the earlier polling and data that shows that when Trump is in office, or really any Republican wins the White House, Democrats hate their country. It's like they cannot separate the officeholder from the entire nation, and Republicans do. The percentage of Democrats who are extremely proud to be American has been lower in Trump's second term than in his first. Again, right now it is fourteen percent. The current fifty six point gap between Republicans and Democrats in the extreme pride category is similar to last year's fifty seven point difference, which was the highest on record. When combining extremely proud and very proud, you get ninety three percent of Republicans with high pride levels. If you combine the extremely proud and the very proud among independents, you get fifty one percent of independence. And when you combine those two answers extremely with very proud, you only get twenty seven percent of Democrats. That's it. Extreme pride has fallen sharply among women since last year, down thirteen points. Men are essentially unchanged significant declines are also seen among Americans aged eighteen to thirty four they're down ten points, as well as Americans aged thirty five to fifty four they lost twelve points. However, if you go above age fifty four, fifty five and older, that's a straight line, that's a that's holding steady. Looking at the combined high pride, less than half of women, adults under thirty five and people of color say they are extremely or very proud to be American. Less than half. In contrast, majorities of men, adults aged thirty five and older, and white adults say they are extremely proud. One of the most common expressions of national pride is to display the American flag. As I mentioned something, around forty three percent of US adults say they do fly the flag outside their home on national holidays or other days. Forty three percent reading is identical to one taken about forty years ago, but it's lower than the fifty nine percent who reported flying the flag back in nineteen ninety one. That was in the wake of the US victory in the Persian Gulf War. In nineteen ninety one, there was very little difference between party groups and displaying the flag, but that is not the case. Today. Republicans are far more likely than Independents or Democrats to display the American flag. Republicans report or I should say, sixty nine percent of Republicans fly the flag, forty two percent of independence due, but only a quarter of Democrats do twenty six percent. And I think John Fetterman is probably the main reason for that one. I actually don't know if he flies a flag. He might, he might not. I don't know, all right. For over a year now you've heard me talking about Create a Video. 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Republicans, though, now are more likely to fly the flag. Sixty nine percent of Republicans fly the American flag, only forty two percent of Independence due and only a quarter of Democrats do. Now. If you go back to nineteen eighty six, Reagan Republicans were at fifty percent, Democrats were at forty two percent, and Independence were at thirty six percent, So that's been quite the erosion. This From their conclusion, the bottom line, American national pride has never been lower in Gallop's trend dating back to two thousand and one. Pride has been falling for two decades, but the pace has quickened in recent years. This casts some uncertainty over how Americans will engage with the countries two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary Anniversary festivities. Well, no, it's going to cast some uncertainty over how Democrats are going to engage in it, right, because Republicans still love America, and this is one of the things I mentioned. John Fetterman, earlier Democrat US senator from Pennsylvania who appears to be like the only rational, sane Democrat in the Senate, and he's the guy who had a stroke, right, so he's like, of course you should celebrate America. Of course I'm proud to be American, and all this like this was this was not a controversial position, and Democrats have seeded, they've surrendered patriotism. I've talked about this repeatedly, Like, you guys don't have to do that. Being an American means that you love the entire country. You love being an American, right is that is not a Republican characteristic. Okay, everybody can be united for America. That's what the flag represents. Ben Shapiro had a great comment about this the other day. He said, the American flag represents the promise of the Declaration of Independence, the greatness of the American Constitution, the greatest system of government ever devised by man, and a system of values rooted in the Bible. The Declaration and the Constitution were not born out of arid soil. They didn't spring full blown from the heads of the men who wrote them. They are the apex of a system of values that was rooted thousands of years beforehand. But as I have mentioned repeatedly over the years, when you teach generations of your own children to hate America, to hate the West, you end up with more people who, surprise, surprise, hate America and hate the West, hate its symbols. Are not proud to be here, are not proud of the of the nation. And I hear I can already hear it now, Pete, these people aren't teaching kids to hate America. Well, if all you ever focus on are the negatives of America, and you never promote or talk about, or educate about the greatness of the country and why it is an exception to what was the rule before we came along, which was grinding poverty, right, a ruling class, a king. Right before we came along, that was the norm throughout human history all over the world, various forms of oppression. Did America get it right right out of the gate? No? Did we make changes along the way in order to get it right? Yes? And why were we able to do that because we had a system that was built to do exactly that. But if all you're ever taught is the original sin of slavery, right that women couldn't vote at the time of our founding, which we probably should, you know, go back to at some point, I'm you know, I'm just kidding, just kidding, I'm just kidding. But if that's all you are taught to be critical of the Western civilization, the roots of that civilization, what makes it better? If you are not going to I can't judge any culture, civilization against another. We're all equal. There are no standards here that we could apply. Right. If all you're ever going to do is tear it down, how are you not teaching your children to hate it? You're teaching them that it is inherently systemically bad. That's what we have been hearing for the better part of thirty years, really really amplified over the last ten to fifteen. So it's no surprise that when you're filling the young skulls of Mush with this garbage, that they believe it. And this ties directly to the previous hours we were talking about the rise of the democratic socialists. It's not a surprise. In fact, it's completely predictable, almost as if there may have been an intention. Let's jump over to the phone and chat with Tony. Hello, Tony, Welcome to the show. Pete. How are you today? Hey, I'm good. What's going on now? I'm looking forward to celebrating on two to fifty birthday. There is a indeed, a wonderful, wonderful country with tremendous opportunities that we live in. I think something that should be mandatory reading for everybody would be Stephen Ambrose's Book to America that he wrote shortly before he retired, and it discusses, you know, our history, the good, the bad, and the fact that our framers gave us the foundation in which to improve the things they couldn't improve during their time. You know, they like to blast Thomas Jeffson for owning slaves. He was against Slaverybody wasn't strong enough at during that time frame to fight it, nor was maybe the political will there to back that up at the time. But he still wrote a tremendous document that gave us the opportunity somewhere down the road to address these issues. And Abraham Lincoln took up that mantle. And these are the things that you really seemed to get lost and say, day and age and then the focus that needs to be on them. Yeah, the writing of the Constitution made the slavery issue. It forced the nation to confront it at some point because, like you said, when they were founding the nation, they knew they would not get support from the slave owning states to form the US. So they had to put that issue on the back burner because if they had because like you had the Quakers out of Pennsylvania, they were like, we're not going to do this unless slavery is abolished, right, And so they had to come up with a way that would placate everybody so everyone could get on board. But it also the way it was written allowed for it. It actually forced the issue to eventually, you know, come to a head because of the way the documents were written, and not. To diminish slavery at all. But at that time also they kind of had a much more pressing issue of Firson wor let's get away from the yoke of England and then we can allow ourselves to build these things. And even as a new young nation, we did not have the power, or the authority or the economic means to even overturn that. Right at the time, we still had to build ourselves and establish ourselves on a world stage, which is you know, if you look throughout all of history, does not happen overnight. Yeah, Tony, I appreciate the call, buddy, Thanks all right, you too, so yes. Stephen Ambrose's book is called Two America, Personal Reflections of an Historian. It was published like twenty years ago. He celebrated the indomitable American spirit as the defining quality that allowed the nation to overcome failures such as racism and the mistreatment of Native Americans while also achieving moral and pragmatic triumphs. Ambrose identified the three greatest triumphs as he sought in American history. Number one was the eighteenth century creation of the Democratic Republic, the nineteenth century abolishment or abolition of slavery, and the preservation of the Union. And number three was the twentieth century crushing of totalitarianism in World War Two. So yeah, it's called Two America, Personal Reflections of an Historian. Genie on the text line, says Pete. What is more concerning is the last ten to fifteen years, schools have spent less and less time teaching the history of this nation. The younger generation has minimal knowledge other than someone has told them, you know, the details of the Civil War, World War one and two, fighting for our civil liberties, trying to make this nation better and smarter than the rest of the world. They don't understand. People are running from other countries but yet trying to turn this country into their own broken nations. Now we're seeing the result of a broken schools system them and what it teaches our children, less and less pride in this great nation, and the very things that we fought to keep out are slowly eroding our land. Joe says, I was eighteen during the bi centennials that have been nineteen seventy six. It was a unifying time, regardless of the politics. And by the way, the economy much worse at the time. The economy in seventy six was terrible. It was absolutely terrible. And you know people who are like, oh, I can't really be proud of America because look at there's economy. Yeah, the economy was way worse in seventy six, but the overt patriotism and the celebrating was way beyond this year. And Joe says, we must be good stewards of the nation we inherited. I am a proud American. Wayne says, I'm extremely proud to be American. The nine percent that isn't needs to leave the country. Yeah, I've never understood this. I'm never one that says love it or leave it, Like I've never taken that approach to anybody in my you know, debates or arguments with people. But I do wonder, right, like I do wonder like if you hate America so much, why are you here like there are if you think communism and socialism, like you think that these are much better models, like well those are those are operable in other nations. You should go live under the system that you prefer, right, I'm pretty sure, like the commis in China, North Korea. Right, I'm pretty sure they'll take you. I mean, you may not like it. They're gonna they're gonna send you to work on like a dirt farm in North Korea. But but you should go go to the place that has the system you prefer. We are this one here, and so we would prefer to keep that one system, and people who don't like that one system should should find ones that they prefer. Tyler says, I wonder what the polling would look like if the question was do you love America? That's a good question. Yeah, I don't know. Bebop in Rock Thrill says the quarter of Democrats that fly the flag, are probably flying it upside down though as possible. Frankie says, love my country, hate my government. Kathy says, I believe a lot of Republicans just don't answer the phone in the Gallup poll or any other poll is probably off. I would know because I never answer these phone calls. But I do fly the flag. I am very proud of America. This is Kathy, Have a blessed day. From the text line, Jennifer says, everybody who says that the communist system is better thinks they will be part of the ruling class. They don't go live in Cuba, for example, because they know they won't be part of the ruling class there. That's exactly right, exactly right. Robert says, I was sixteen years old for the bisentennial in nineteen seventy six, and the average person seem to have a much stronger sense of pride in the USA. I was too young for any of that. I was a baby. Beth's favorite. Russ Yeah says this love of country discussion is interesting. Thank you. The older I get, the more I love the natural beauty, the people, the innovation and foundation of our country. At the same time, I have come to despise the government, bureaucracy and politicians. So I get that. I do. Look, you're allowed to be frustrated, right, Not that you need my permission, but yes, people get frustrated. I get frustrated, right. But it's always important to ask in comparison to what because we may not be perfect, but what are we judging ourselves against? Right in comparison to what Kevin says. For me, I think my patriotism has been negatively affected by my realization of how much hate there exists in this country for people that are different. I thought we were different, better than most countries, but we're not. We're worse. Donald Trump didn't the hate, but he did expose it. I think Donald Trump didn't cause the hate, but he did expose it. So no, I would disagree with this too, Kevin. Your realization of how much hate there exists in this country for people that are different in comparison to what, Because if you go back in our history two hundred and fifty years, it's probably a lot of hate back then. Go back one hundred and fifty years, probably a lot of hate back then too. Go to another country, a lot of hate in other countries as well. I mean I can think of about fifty five right off the top of my head, where like you are literally second class citizens if you are not of the only religion that they permit. Right, So, in comparison to what, there's racism and bigotry and prejudice and hatred in every country on the face of the planet, because there is racism and bigotry and prejudice and hatred in the hearts of human beings. We're not a country comprised of perfect humans. I mean that would be something so no, I mean that again, like in comparison to what, then you say that we're You thought we were different, better than most countries, but we're not. We're worse. I would defy you to find another nation on the face of the planet throughout human history that has had the diversity of peoples living in relative peace as we have been for as long as we have been. Find me other countries that recognize the intrinsic value of the individual because we are made in the image and likeness of God, that we are endowed by God, by the Creator, with inalienable rights like that is. And that's all so, by the way, something that the Supreme Court got wrong when they were talking about the fourteenth Amendment. I mean, that was the that's what separated us from Britain, that that, you know, you are a subject of the king of those lands, you were subject to the jurisdiction thereof. And that was the American project, was that no, you're not You're not subject to a king. Brenda says, maybe displaying the flag might be high or oh the percentage of people displaying the flag could be higher. Uh, but people who live in Hoa's might not be able to display flags. That's that's there are some states that you're not allowed to Yeah, that you're not allowed to display the flags. Tim says, I love our country and our democracy, And Jeff says, frustration in the government is why I'll be in the very patriotic camp instead of the extremely Well, it's it's not patriotism. It was proud, proud of the country. Yeah. So yeah, and so I think whenever you ask that kind of a question and you give those kinds of that range of responses extremely proud, very proud, moderately proud, only a little proud, and then not proud at all, you're basically giving you know, four answers to give people this wiggle room. But that's what they're testing, right, because when you look at the numbers, it was only nine percent said not proud at all. So ninety one percent ninety to ninety one percent are proud to some degree extremely And if you had extremely proud with very proud, you end up with more than half. But Gallup has been tracking this, and so that's why I always say, when looking at polling, whether it's for stuff like this or it's you know, electoral prospects, the more important information from the polling isn't the individual poll, it's the trend line. Right. For example, I just saw Graham Platner, uh, the guy with the Nazi tattoo, up in Maine, and he's only now leading Susan Collins by two percent. Now, if you were only looking at that latest poll, you would say, aha, Platner's up by two yay, right, yeah, But he was up by like ten or eight or something like that a couple of months ago. So that trend line for him, no bueno. And so the trend line here also not very good because you go back twenty five years and we had more Americans that were extremely proud, but what you're seeing is the drop off is mainly predominantly in democrats and women. All Right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. 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