Latest Gallop Poll results indicate that Conservatives are more patriotic than liberals and are more than twice as likely to express their patriotic views.
According to CNS News:
The poll asked respondents this question: “How patriotic are you? Would you say extremely patriotic, very patriotic, somewhat patriotic, or not especially patriotic?” The poll surveyed a random sample of 1,014 adults from June 11-13, and the margin of error was plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.
Overall, 72 percent of Americans said they were either extremely (32 percent) or very patriotic (42 percent), with another 19 percent saying they were somewhat patriotic. Only 6 percent said they were “not especially patriotic.”
The USA Today news story on this poll question did not report any data at all about the patriotism of liberals as discovered by the survey, although it did report that patriotism has increased among Republicans and conservatives, stating: “The number of Republicans and conservatives who describe their patriotism as running high has increased 24 percentage points since 1999.”
The Gallup analysis of the poll question did list what percentage of liberals, conservatives and moderates, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, and people of various age groups described themselves as “extremely patriotic” in both 2005 and this year–thus providing a basis for comparing liberals with conservatives as well as with other groups.
Liberals were the least likely of all groups listed by Gallup to say they were “extremely” patriotic.
Neither the USA Today news story on the poll question nor the Gallup analysis explained why the poll used the term “extremely” to describe the most patriotic group given that the word “extreme” often carries a pejorative connotation, particularly in politics. The Gallup analysis did say, however: “The difference between ‘extremely’ and ‘very’ patriotic is left to respondents to interpret.”
Percentage of Americans Saying They Are Extremely Patriotic
2005 2010 Change
Republicans 35% 52% 17 points
Conservatives 33 48 15
Aged 65+ 21 40 19
Men 29 37 8
Aged 50-64 29 35 6
Aged 30-49 29 32 3
Independents 21 30 9
Women 23 28 5
Moderates 23 22 -1
Aged 18-29 21 22 1
Democrats 22 20 -2
Liberals 23 19 -4
It seems me that extremely is a value laden word and also that the word ‘patriotic’ is also undefined. What might be patriotic to one person isn’t to another. Are we looking just at flag waving?
I can’t find fault with those whose only show of patriotism is waving the flag as long as they mean it. Not many of the general population have ever been asked to show any more patriotism than waving a flag to begin with. Fighting to maintain this country’s sovereignty would certainly qualify as a patriotic act that all can participate in.
Correction: “Not many of the general population in recent years have ever…..”
Patriotism – what does it mean? How can one quantify patriotism? Driving a Prius is patriotic? Waving the flag? Wearing a flag bandana around one’s sweaty brow?
I defy anyone to define “patriotism”. Seems to me that either you are patriotic or you are NOT; sorta like being a little bit pregnant.
To me, military service, in peace and particularly in war, is what I call the Post Graduate Course in Citizenship. That is not to say that others are not “patriotic” or better citizens, it is to say that those who signed that blank check to the nation that was payable in any amount up to and including their life are different.
I agree that the term “extremely” makes my touch alarm go off. Somewhere in this blog–not this thread–the term “wing nut” has been used I believe to describe those at the extreme on either side of the political realm. That term comes to mind when I hear “extremely” attached to “patriotism”.
We have RINOs and DINOs and now perhaps we have PINOs or EPINOs. How is one to know?
Ah, the PINO.
How do we decide what the attributes are of someone ‘patriotic?’ Religious? I am afraid I don’t know. I don’t think everyone has to do the same thing to be patriotic.
The figures for 18-29 year olds is very interesting in light of the fact that they are doing most of the fighting and dying and they were not otherwise classified by the poll. As a young blind Marine with a large chunk of the left frontal bone of his skull missing said to me one day when I told him how much I appreciated his service and his sacrifice: “I was just doing my duty sir.” THAT is patriotism.
George, it doesn’t get any more patriotic than that.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scounderel.
Samuel Johnson
Starry, are you sure that wasn’t from Samuel Jackson? : )
So on one hand we have people who place their lives on the line, and on the other we have those who won’t even verbally defend our sovereignty. I tip my hat to the vets, and to the others I display a digit!
So what we are looking at is a bunch of partisan, older men who call themselves patriotic which can be interpreted as anything.
That and a dime won’t get you a cup of coffee.
Is Gallup always like this? Are they credible?
My guess is that most veterans would consider it unpatriotic to assert that only military veterans are patriotic or are more patriotic because of their call to their duty to Country. But lets be clear, would any of you here argue that patriotism is not also about a willingness to defend our sovereignty, our borders, our interests in the world, protecting and serving ones family and community or the rule of law. I will also argue that cultural patriotism and fealty to our history, governmental design, commitment to individualism and liberty are also fundamental to American patriotism. If you are a communist – can you – today – be an American patriot – whether a legal or illegal entry resident? If you advocate the direct take over of heavy industry, National Socialism – ok big Government with its welfare or the ability to screen out certain messages from the internet absent any national security issues – can you be an American patriot? I think not, because it is not that patriotism is the last refuge of a scounderel, it is that the scoundral has no sense of patriotism.
I agree with PWC.
Swoop, I think it is all how the question was framed. This poll was discovered in a right wing internet periodical. I thought it was revealing.
TP, whats this internet business? Who is squeezing messages off the internet?
I think you have a very narrow view of patriotism. Can a person be a patriot who wants to put limitations on 2nd amendment issues? How about if they are pro choice? How about if they support gays in the military? How about if they value environmental issues over personal property issues?
SA, explain to me what you mean by ‘defend our sovereignty’ please. What it means to you might not be what it means to me.
@Moon-howler
Can a communist be an American Patriot? My answer is no – even if you take out the totalitarian aspect of every Marxist/ Communist experiment – because the philosophy of American Democracy is fundamentally incompatible with communist and much of the progressive socialist group ideology (which has consistently failed BTW). Strong incentives to build up yourself and your family through the generations are incompatible with arbitrary income wealth redistribution. In America, a level playing field is government’s responsibility not the equalization of outcomes. Adherence to these principles and a willingness to defend them is patriotism. Other nations have other assumptions. Now, what say you?
Not much because you answered me in Republican-speak and I honest don’t know what you are talking about. All of those are buzz words for things people don’t like but to someone not firmly grounded in a conservative Republican movement….it falls on deaf ears.
I threw out a few concepts and you didn’t comment. How about a yes or no there.
I go along with George in his first para of #4. His description has become almost a given when we discuss patriotism in virtually any era. When you answered Mr. Lincoln’s call in 1861, you placed yourself forever in that national book of patriotism. The same in World War I and World War II and even in the more controversial wars thereafter. I think George also hit it on the head in his second para of #4 and his subsequent description of the response of that young, badly wounded Marine. Veterans like to be appreciated for their service, but, when you overdo it with gushing praise for patriotism, most of the guys I know and have known get a bit embarrassed personally by the adulation. They feel good inside and they certainly feel appreciated but their overt response to you will often be the modesty of that young Marine, regardless of the war and the generation.
But I am also one who believes that patriotism is not just evidenced on the battlefield, even in the military. I was sent away from my war on a medevac plane fairly early in that contest. The military hospital in which I landed was filled with Marine and Navy patients from that war but also with doctors, nurses, corpsmen, and medical service staff, many of whom had not been in the war theater and might never go there, with many of the corpsmen a major exception. But, by God, those people worked hard to ensure the healing of body and soul. They not only did their medical job but they also tried to become your family because they recognized the acute hurt in that place. On their uniform fronts many had only the National Defense Service medal issued as a matter of course to all active duty personnel but I always felt that there should have been other medals on those chests as well which gave tribute to caring. Eight months in that place, and I never heard an unkind word directed at me and was never turned away when I needed assistance. Patriots all of them.
But I go beyond even that. There was a time when my ship got caught in a Pacific typhoon which would have outstripped Katrina in force. The waves which swept over us were as high as a four story building. We lost all of our technical equipment. Even the compass fell. We could not establish our position with the sextants or the LORAN. We didn’t know where we were or even where we were going. We had no way of communicating with the outside world. The steel top deck undulated like a piece of rubber when we hit each successive wave and eventually developed a crack across the top. The ship was lifted so high on the crest of those waves that the propellors came out of the water. But we made it without losing a single man. When I later had a chance to contemplate that experience, I realized that our old ship, built in the later years of World War II, was a work of art. It had been built in Ohio by hundreds of Joe Six-Packs who had never put on a uniform but who faithfully created masterworks every day. I could only conclude that their hard work had managed to save 120 lives in that three or four days of a killer storm. Patriots. Every last one of them, uniform or not.
I don’t put much personal stock in this kind of poll.
Me either, Wolverine, but it has been a good point of discussion. I think maybe Patriot is sort of like the word hero.
@Wolverine, despite what you might read from some know-nothing on other blogs, my husband is not on the blog, here or anywhere. He types with 2 fingers and keeps them exercised with the TV remote.
He isn’t even particularly sympathetic to much of what is discussed on here.
Moon, you mean Mr. Moonhowler is NOT “Swooping Buzzard”?!!! Didn’t think so. I’ve always gotten the impression from you that Mr. M might believe the posters on this blog are a bunch of political flibberdygibbets with too much time on their hands. Hah!!! Mrs. W: “Are you still posting on those blogs? Have you finished paying the bllls yet? Are you going to eat with me downstairs or do I have to bring your food upstairs again?” Love her.
I do wish “Swooping Buzzard” would change his/her handle. I hate buzzards. Back when I lived in a bush shack with a corrugated tin roof, those buzzards used to land on the top ridge of the roof. The screaking of their talons was like ten or fifteen elementary school kids running their fingernails over the blackboard. When I rushed out to shoo them away, they just looked down on me with fearless eyes. The expressions on their ugly faces all said: “Ah hah!!! Good!!! That poor sucker is looking the worse for wear all the time. Maybe lunch today!!!”
@ Wolverine,
Buzzards are gross, aren’t they!
And you pretty much got it regarding Mr. M. He doesn’t necessarily agree politically with anyone here. Back when I was a working girl, he wasn’t allowed to mention immigration to me. I didn’t want his negativity. He also says I am ‘playing on the computer.’
He would probably disembowel the person who accused him of being ‘buzzard,,’ or at least he would if he were younger.
Actually, his politics are very strange and not very consistent…even stranger than mine.
I tried to tell him he might enjoy blogging ….he looked at me like I had just suggested he flush his remote down the toilet.
JFK had a good definition for patriotism: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
It’s a concept that is entirely antithetical to the welfare-dependency/entitlement state that this administration so favors.
I don’t feel that this administration favors entitlement one ounce more than the Bush administration did. Of course, I haven’t gotten past the atrociticies of No Child Left Behind–speaking of huge entitlements and unfunded mandates.
Won’t argue that. Also the DNI–another whopper of an unfunded mandate that has done nothing to get the agencies talking to one another.
I am embarrassed to admit I had to look up DNI ….still not sure.
@Wolverine
I find it hard to believe that we are in total agreement on this. The guy who put the last riviet in the ship was a patriot.
Patriots are everywhere, all shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, religions. And at one point, there were even some American communists who were patriots–Joe McCarthy didn’t think so–but many saw the light and when they did, they dropped it like a hot rock. Most on here may not remember the Comintern, which presented many faces to the world and wooed people with workers’ rights, etc. It was during our Great Depression and people were looking for a better way. A little off the point for sure, but my point is that patriots are like books, you can’t always tell them by their covers.
“We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”
Attributed to many folks including Winston Churchill and George Orwell, but I suspect those “rough men” are patriots.
@Moon-howler
Moon, I also tried to figure out what PWC TP was saying and I agree–sounds like Republicanspeak or Tea Party Speak. I couldn’t find that it had anything to do with patriotism.
Ah–in #12, PWC TP has snuck immigration into the conversation:
” a willingness to defend our sovereignty, our borders, our interests in the world, protecting and serving ones family and community or the rule of law.”
All pig latin for, “kick the illegal/undocumented folks out and maybe even keep any immigrants from coming in.”
And the balance of the paragraph is more anti-Obama rant that PWC TP is well known for.
Seems like he has a one or at the most two plank political platform–looks kinda like a tea bag, sqwaks kinda like a tea bag, I’m beginning to think he is a tea bag.
George,
Would you disagree that ” a willingness to defend our sovereignty, our borders, our interests in the world, protecting and serving ones family and community or the rule of law.” is patriotic? This phrase describes every military member I’ve met. It describes the LEO members that I’ve met. Most of our public servants in State, etc. Even most of our politicians…..
And I think PWC TP wouldn’t mind being linked to TEA.
For the record, No, I am not a tea partier – although I find myself being pushed that way more and more by this Administration and this crazy Congress. I don’t think you liberals give the teapartiers the credit they deserve for being just as angry with the Bush Administration and the failure of republicans in Congress to control spending , entitlements and the bailouts. But then Democrates have not been particularly effective in our national defense either.
Welcome back Emma… I agree with your assesment of Kennedy’s line. We lost much of that somewhere along the line.
@cargosquid
I don’t disagree at all with the statement CS, but it’s the methodology that concerns me and what I perceive as the hidden meaning.
@Moon-howler Sorry–DNI: Directorate of National Intelligence.