Nearly 100% of Up-&-Coming Dems Disagree America Is the Greatest Country in the World
It’s a quote that’s commonly, but inaccurately, attributed to Winston Churchill: “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.”
As the International Churchill Society notes, the ol’ bulldog was a Tory at the age of 15 and a liberal at age 35. (He’d eventually find his brain.)
However, it’s a bit of folk wisdom that we take for granted: Young liberals will eventually age out of their more extreme opinions and, if not become card-carrying Republicans, at least become moderates.
One hopes that’s true — especially in the area of patriotism. As it stands now, according to the results of a poll released Wednesday, 95 percent of young Democrats don’t think the United States is the greatest country in the world.
The Pew Research Center’s headline is a masterpiece of understatement: “Younger Americans more likely than older adults to say there are other countries that are better than the U.S.”
How much more likely?
Forty-seven percent of young Americans between the ages of 18-29 who identified as Democrats or lean Democratic said they believe there are better countries than the United States. Another 48 percent said the United States is only among the greatest countries, not the greatest.
Just 5 percent said that the United States is the greatest country in the world.
Among those ages 30-49, the numbers weren’t much better. Only 7 percent said America is the world’s greatest nation, compared with 59 percent who said it’s one of the greatest nations and 34 percent who felt there were better countries.
Young Republicans, meanwhile, were far more likely to say America was the greatest country in the world; 34 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 ranked it as number one while 47 percent said it was among the top nations.
Only 19 percent said there were other, better nations.
Overall, 24 percent of total respondents of all ages felt that America was the world’s greatest nation, 55 percent said they thought it was among the greatest nations and 21 percent thought there were other, better nations out there.
The survey of 9,895 respondents was conducted between Sept. 3 and Sept. 15, 2019, and had a margin of error of plus- or minus-1.5 percentage points.
“Views of how the U.S. compares with other countries have long been divided along partisan lines,” the Pew Research Center said.
But these differences have widened in recent years as Democrats have become more likely to say there are other countries that are better than the U.S.
“In telephone surveys, the share of Democrats saying this is higher than at any point since the question was first asked by Pew Research Center in 2011, and there has been a corresponding decline in the share saying the U.S. stands above other nations,” Pew reported.
This isn’t just a function of the 2016 election, either.
In 2011, the first time the question was asked, 31 percent of those who identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic and were polled over the phone said the United States was the greatest country in the world. That number was down to 23 percent in 2014 and 2015.
In 2017, it was down to 19 percent. In 2019, 15 percent.
Opinions about America’s position as the world’s preeminent military superpower were also troubling among young Democrats.
“When it comes to America’s status as a military superpower, a majority of adults (61%) say that U.S. policies should try to maintain the country’s position as the only military superpower, while 36% say it would be acceptable if another country were to become as militarily powerful,” Pew stated.
“Mirroring age divides in attitudes about U.S. exceptionalism, younger adults are more likely than older adults to say it would be acceptable if another country became as militarily powerful as the U.S.
“A narrow majority (55%) of Democrats under age 30 say it would be acceptable if other nations became as militarily powerful as the U.S., while Democrats ages 30 to 49 are divided on this question. Democrats 50 and older are more likely to say policies should try to keep it so the U.S. remains militarily superior than to say it would be acceptable for another country to gain similar military strength (57% vs. 39%).”
Meanwhile, among Republicans under 30, 60 percent said that America’s policies should be aimed at maintaining our position as the only military superpower, compared with 38 percent who found it acceptable if other nations were to surpass us militarily.
It’s unclear whether these young Democrats understood that if a nation were to overtake the United States militarily, it wouldn’t be those friendly Swedish socialists, who finally figured out how to mount hypersonic guided missiles atop their stealth Volvos.
Volvo, it’s worth noting, is now under Chinese ownership — as will be much of the South China Sea and, indeed, much of Asia if the United States is no longer the preeminent military superpower in the world.
There’s a reason why Beijing recently held joint naval drills with Iran and Russia, and it wasn’t because they want those nations to step up and become more responsible members of the international community.
It’s ironic that the Democrats are usually the ones who squeal about both-sidesism — the horrible thought crime of looking at the excesses of the right and of the left through the same lens and thinking they’re equally troublesome.
It isn’t just that they don’t think America is the greatest country in the world.
This is dispiriting but hardly surprising.
Rather, it’s the kind of credulousness it takes to believe that the United States and the world’s other military superpowers are morally equivalent enough that it will hardly matter if the mantle is passed.
If young Democrats don’t think it will matter much what superpower can use the proverbial big stick most effectively to get their way diplomatically, they’re in for quite a shock — and they’ll find out with a decided swiftness why the United States is the greatest country on Earth.
At that point, however, it won’t particularly matter.
Liberalism may indeed be an inherent tendency of youth. You hope that these are the kinds of opinions people grow out of.
There are reasons to suspect otherwise, however.
The Democratic Party has now been handed over, in part, to doomsday prophets like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
These aren’t people who want to change our system but who fundamentally reject its precepts.
President Donald Trump’s election didn’t spark this trend, but it certainly accelerated it.
We have an entire party that can now only be proud of its own country if they’re the ones in power — and even then the pride is questionable.
In short, the safe assumption that these are the kinds of opinions people age out of is anything but safe.
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