Americans: Highly Patriotic

From the American Enterprise Institute, a compilation of public opinion polls on patriotism.

Two clear conclusions:

First, Americans are very patriotic. For example, 89 percent of Americans, in 2000, said America has “the best system of government in the world.” In a 1996 survey, 90 percent of Americans said “I would rather be a citizen of America than of any other country in the world.”

Second, Republicans are more patriotic than Democrats. For example, a 2005 Gallup study found 71 percent of Republicans and only 54 percent of Democrats saying they are “extremely proud” of being an American.

Likewise, a 2006 survey asked “If you had the opportunity to leave the United States and permanently live in another country, would you take it?” Eight percent of Republicans, but fully 24 percent of Democrats said they would leave the country.

Liberals are always saying “don’t you dare question our patriotism!”

We suppose they might argue that Republicans are too patriotic and are mindless chauvinists. They might argue that Democrats have some deeper kind of patriotism.

Further, the 2005 Gallup study which found only 54 percent of Democrats saying they were “extremely proud” of being an American showed a lot of additional Democrats saying they are merely “very proud,” which is hardly a Benedict Arnold kind of answer.

Still, Republicans seem to like America better than Democrats. If we looked at only liberal Democrats — the Air America crowd, the Daily Kos crowd, the activists who are so important in the party’s politics — the differences would be more stark.