American patriotism has sunk to a historic low, according to a new Gallup poll with national pride tumbling among Democrats in particular. Political polarisation has reached fever pitch, with each side increasingly viewing the other not as opponents but as enemies. Since 1994, the share of Republicans and Democrats who hold “very unfavourable” views of the other party has more than tripled, and now makes up a solid majority on both sides.

Cognitive elites often lay the blame — as they do for most things — at the feet of Donald Trump. As a symbol of rudeness and disregard for others, he has certainly made things worse. But America’s civic decline predates his ascent to power in 2016. Around 20 years ago, roughly 90% Democrats, Republicans and independents were “proud” to be American; today, barely a third of Democrats and half of independents feel that way, even as Republicans retain their patriotic leanings.

The legacy of the Sixties and popular opposition to the Vietnam War is critical here: many protesters from that era became college professors, who in turn trained the next generation of teachers, journalists, and bureaucrats. Unsurprisingly, patriotic sentiment among Generation Z is now roughly half that of Baby Boomers. Rather than raise the flag in spite of the country’s flaws, today’s elites often view the Stars and Stripes as an emblem of fascist repression. One leading organiser of the “No Kings” movement even urges Americans to skip 4 July celebrations entirely, calling the US “a country that doesn’t love you back”.

The capture of the educational bureaucracy (especially in blue states) has led to an emphasis on progressive values over basic civics. Like many educators, I’m continually shocked by students’ ignorance — confirmed by national test results — of basic concepts such as the reasons for the Electoral College, the tripartite structure of Government, or the origins of the Senate. Just one in four students is proficient in civics, and that number is declining.

This cultural division is compounded by deepening geographic splits that increasingly resemble the antebellum era before the Civil War. The Democratic Party held seats across the Plains and the South well into the Eighties. Today, it is essentially a Northern party, with its power concentrated in major cities. This has fostered a leadership class typified by firebrands like Jasmine Crockett, Gen-Z favourite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and New York mayoral contender Zohran Mamdani.

Many Republicans have hailed this shift. But the GOP is not winning over most voters. The party’s immigration policies, a strength in 2024, have been undermined by repressive ICE events which have landed poorly with much of the electorate. The party also accommodates questionable types, from openly racist eugenicists to hardline Christian nationalists.

Presented with such awful choices, it’s not surprising that the only group currently growing is the independents, mostly at the expense of Democrats. At the same time, fewer people are even bothering to register, much less vote.

This age of detachment poses as great a threat to the Republic as today’s bitter bipartisan polarisation. Ordinary Americans aren’t just turning away from politics — they’re increasingly opting out of marriage, parenthood, and even the workforce. The share of prime-age men not in the labour force is now three times higher than it was two decades ago, and lower than it was in 1940.

Such unraveling demands urgent attention. At its core, America remains a capitalist superpower. But without a deeper connection to its founding ideals and a shared sense of future purpose, this exceptional Republic risks devolving into something like post-national Europe or modern Britain: diminished, adrift, and lacking even the consolation of historic charm.

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Joel Kotkin is a Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute, the University of Texas at Austin.

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