Proud Americans face doubt, fear about the nation’s path

American pride – A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds Americans say they’re proud to be American—yet nearly one-third worry about where the country is headed, and almost half believe the U.S. has moved far from its founding principles. The survey also shows a sharp sense that

The feeling arrived in the small, everyday things—air conditioning, department stores, the variety of food—and then it turned into a question about what those comforts mean for the country’s future.

David Walsh. 62. a retired teacher from New Jersey who identified as a Republican. said he feels “very proud” to be American. He pointed to the way global fans are visiting the United States for the FIFA World Cup and enjoying what Americans can take for granted. For him, it’s a reminder that the country still has something worth believing in—and something worth protecting.

In the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, American pride is strong. Yet the same survey finds nearly one-third of Americans say they are worried about the direction the U.S. is headed, and almost half of Americans think the country has moved far away from the nation’s founding principles. The poll surveyed 1,340 respondents, conducted June 8–11, with a margin of error of +/- 3.0 percentage points. Responses were collected online and by phone and text. NPR also followed up with several poll participants about their views about America ahead of the 250th anniversary.

Walsh described what he values as freedoms he can feel in his daily life: “The ability to think how I want. to help out who I want and to try to do things that are good for me and others.” He added that visitors are coming to the U.S. and later returning home with a different story than the one they started with.

“We have a lot of great things here. That’s why people want to come here,” Walsh said. “Go live in that other country you think is better, and they’ll be coming back here in a year.”

Still, the poll’s pride comes with a shadow. While most Americans say they are proud—at different levels—35% of respondents overall said they aren’t proud to be American.

Partisan lines sharpen the divide. Republicans were the most proud to be Americans. with 93% saying they were proud and 65% saying they were “very proud.” Independents were close behind. with 61% saying they were proud. Democrats were least likely to say they were proud: 45% responded that they were proud.

Christopher James. 59. a federal employee based in Maryland who identified as a Democrat. said his feelings about the country are mixed. “I’m proud of some of the achievements that we’ve made in a variety of ways in the world,” he said. But he described it as hard to feel “absolute pride” when the country is still in conflict—pointing to what he sees as Americans who won’t compromise with people who hold different views and those who rely on emotion over logic. “But it’s hard to feel absolute pride considering the conflicts that are going on in our society right now. ” James said.

Americans also appear to be taking stock of something larger than pride. About 83% of respondents believe the country has moved away from its “founding principles.” That view is higher than it was when the country marked its bicentennial in 1976.

In 1976. during the years the country was recovering from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. a poll conducted by the Roper Organization—now called the Roper Center—found that 30% of respondents thought Americans had moved far away from the founding principles. Another 46% thought the U.S. had moved somewhat away, while 18% said America still stood on its founding principles.

Now, nearly 50 years later, 50% of Americans say the country has moved far away from those principles. Another 36% say the nation has moved somewhat away from the founding ideals, and 16% believe the country still represents those values.

The gulf is especially wide by party affiliation. When asked where the nation stands on its founding principles, only 13% of Democrats said the nation hasn’t veered from those principles, while 20% of Republicans said the nation still reflects them.

John Grigg. 59. an election officer from Virginia who identified as an independent. said he feels “embarrassed” to be an American at this moment. He sees the 250th anniversary as less about celebrating the nation than about President Trump. Grigg told NPR he remembers celebrating the U.S. bicentennial as a young child and that school then focused on the Revolutionary War and how America became America. Now, he said, it feels like two different places.

“Celebrating how America had become America at that point versus now, where America is, it just looks like two different places,” Grigg said.

Generation also plays a role. Younger generations are more likely than older Americans to say the country aligns with the founding ideals. About 21% of Gen Z respondents said America still represents the founding principles. Only 19% of millennials, 14% of Gen X, and 13% of baby boomers said the same.

Not everyone interprets that distance as a loss. Matthew Norton, 40, a professional role-playing games facilitator from Oregon, said it can be a good thing that the U.S. has left behind its founding principles, arguing the country was built on a narrow view of who people were worth. Norton said he would rather focus on how things should be done than how they used to be done.

“I think that an appeal simply to how it used to be done isn’t the way I want to look at things,” Norton said. “I’d rather look at the way things should be done as opposed to how they used to be done.”

As Americans weigh the country’s direction, the poll also found anxiety tied to the future of democracy. Eighty-two percent think a serious threat to democracy exists. That’s a four-point jump since February.

The question of violence—whether it should be used to force the country back on course—revealed an alarming split, even among those who may still feel pride in the country.

More than 1 in 10 Americans—12%—said they strongly agree that resorting to violence is the way to course correct the path America is on. That figure is lower than when the same poll question was asked in October 2025, when 25% agreed that violence is necessary. Meanwhile, 35% of Americans currently disagree with deploying violence to fix their concerns about the direction of the country. But only 27% strongly disagree, down from 36% in October.

James, the federal employee in Maryland, said he hopes Americans don’t choose that path. “People think it will solve their problem, but it will create so many more,” he said. “And once you do that, you can’t go back. All the norms and society get damaged in that way.”

Grigg said he does not think a civil war is on the horizon, but he isn’t ruling out violence. “I hate to see it. But in some cases. The violence may be what is needed to influence some people’s decisions,” he said.

Even with the dread running through parts of the survey. many Americans still believe the country’s best days are ahead. The poll found a majority of Americans think America’s best days are yet to come—65% of Republicans and 52% of independents. Still, 45% of all respondents said the country’s best days have already come and gone.

Democrats are nearly evenly divided, with 50% saying the best days are gone and 48% saying they have yet to come.

Jason Withington. 42. who works in information technology in Missouri. said he still believes in the American dream. even as conditions—like the economy—make it harder to reach. He believes the best days are yet to come. but he argued that the country has to solve concrete problems if future generations are going to be prosperous.

“We gotta get this debt under control,” Withington said, referring to the $39 trillion national debt. “In order for our economy to keep growing and for my kids’ generation and my grandkids’ generation. if I’m blessed with grandkids. we got to get the debt under control or our best days will not be ahead of us.”.

Withington described himself as a moderate who has voted for both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

But optimism about America’s future is not matched by confidence that the next generations will actually be better off. When asked to look ahead to America’s 300th anniversary. 59% of respondents said they’re not too confident or not confident at all that the future is brighter for up-and-coming generations.

Arlene Stillwell. 60. a retired college professor from New York. said she feels ashamed of the current government while still counting blessings in daily life and holding onto hope. Like other respondents. Stillwell pointed to a reminder that Americans can still connect—saying she’s found hope watching Americans welcome visiting soccer fans.

“That gives me hope that maybe the problem is not the American people, it’s who we’ve elected,” Stillwell said. “And maybe we need to do some deep reflecting on this next round of elections coming up this fall and then again in two years.”

Stillwell said she hopes that universal basic income. universal childcare. universal healthcare. and universal basic housing will become part of the future. She also pointed to medical progress she said has given her hope—“We just cured someone of sickle cell anemia that just happened in Louisiana”—and said she hopes with all of her heart that the country’s best days are ahead.

The poll’s numbers don’t just measure pride. They track where Americans feel the country has drifted, how they view the risks to democracy, and whether they believe the next chapter will deliver on the promises the country tells itself it still wants to keep.

United States politics NPR/PBS News/Marist poll American pride founding principles democracy threat political polarization national debt 250th anniversary election