Despite the country’s deep political polarization, most Americans share many core beliefs about what it means to be American, according to a new poll.
About 9 in 10 American adults say the right to vote, the right to equal protection under the law, and the right to privacy are very important to the United States, according to an Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. or very important. national identity. The survey also found that 84% have similar beliefs about religious freedom.
The results included a variety of views on freedoms and rights, but there were only small differences between Republicans and Democrats, except for the right to bear arms, which Republicans are likely to see as core to the country’s identity. Ta. The overall findings are shocking because they come at a time of extreme partisan polarization, when political agreement seems rare and concerns about the potential for violence are heightened in a volatile presidential election year. be.
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“If you take a bunch of random people and put them in the same room and talk about issues, you’re going to get more convergence than you can imagine,” said Michael Albertus, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.
A more pessimistic assessment of the country is reflected in another survey that found only about 3 in 10 Americans believe the country’s democracy is working well. Approximately half say the United States does not have a fully functioning democracy, and 14% say the United States is not a democracy.
The tension between broad agreement about the country’s fundamental values and dissatisfaction with how well its form of government is working is not surprising, experts say.
Despite this country’s deep political polarization, most Americans share many core values about what it means to be American, according to a new poll. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“Part of it is that our leaders don’t reflect their voters and act in a way that’s much more polarized than their electorate is,” said Liliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University. It’s about being there,” he said.
Most Americans, she says, are “fairly moderate, but they’re outraged by hating people because they’re culturally, racially, or religiously different.”
The AP-NORC poll also found broad agreement on the importance of several key values to America’s national identity. Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults agree that a democratically elected government is very or very important, helping people living in the United States to get good jobs and achieve the American Dream. About 8 out of 10 people think the same way about whether it can be done.
But not all Americans agree on what it means to realize that dream or which values are most fundamental to American culture.
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Democrats are 71% vs. 38% more likely than Republicans to believe that the ability to come to the United States from other parts of the world to escape violence or find economic opportunity is central to this country’s identity. . A majority of Republicans (58%) think a culture based on Christian values and beliefs is an important characteristic, compared to just 18% of Democrats.
Juan Sierra, 51, a naturalized citizen whose family immigrated from the Dominican Republic after hurricanes destroyed his father’s cement business, said it was very important to him that the United States be seen as a place of opportunity.
The Port St. Lucie, Fla., industrial engineer said he believes democracy is working and will continue to work “as long as we have good people in government.”
Sierra also said that while he was concerned about the country’s identity being tied to Christianity, it was very important for people to have religious freedom.
“We are now seeing what happens when laws are passed and decisions are made based on someone’s religion,” he said, adding that frozen embryos are considered children and given legal protection. He cited the Alabama Supreme Court’s February ruling. He temporarily halted IVF procedures in the state.
Susan Johnson, a 76-year-old Republican who lives in a Dallas suburb, said the country’s status as a beacon for people in need of refuge is very important, but that doesn’t override concerns about border security.
“We need people to work,” she said. “All we need is for them to come in the right direction.”
Mr Johnson also said he believed it was very important that a nation’s identity be rooted in spirituality.
“Whether you’re a Mormon, a Muslim, a Christian, they have to have a higher power to reach out to,” she said. “If we don’t believe in God, this country will fall apart.”
While the poll found little disagreement about democracy as a theoretical institution, it did reveal one notable gap. They found that young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were less likely than Americans over 60 to say the United States is a well-functioning democracy. They are also less likely than older Americans to think that some features are essential to the character of the United States, such as the existence of a democratically elected government. Among younger adults he considers this to be important, about 6 out of 10, compared to about 9 out of 10 in older adults.
Palakchot Singh, a 21-year-old college student from Fresno, California, identifies himself as a Republican and said his quality of life was better when Donald Trump was president. He said the United States is not a well-functioning democracy, in part because its citizens are less open to discussing different points of view than previous generations.
“We’re not communicating well,” he says. “No one is sitting together and trying to get to a single point.”
Howard Rabin, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the generational divide is understandable. Many young people don’t remember a time when people with opposing views and different political backgrounds would come together and say, “Come to your house.” Their frame of reference, he says, is the hyperpartisanship of the Trump era.
Joe Ragle, a 55-year-old retired Air Force veteran from Colorado Springs, said he didn’t vote for President Joe Biden or President Trump, saying the country’s rights are “all important,” but he believes they are associated with intolerance. He said he believed it was being eroded by good intentions. Myopic people.
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Mike Malloy, 41, an engineer from Greensboro, North Carolina, said that having these rights and freedoms “doesn’t necessarily mean that the United States is a functioning democracy.”
“Everything is run by a few people and their companies,” he says. “That’s not democracy.”
Malloy, a Democrat, pointed to this year’s presidential primary in North Carolina, where Biden was the only candidate. He called it “frustrating” and said voters had “no choice” in the outcome.
