A recent Gallup poll asked, “Which values does the country most need today?” The poll offered a list of options: “honesty, responsibility, integrity, equality, fairness, freedom, respect, patriotism, courage, kindness, humility, and service.”
The results, broken down by political affiliation, were as follows: Democrats favored equality as their highest value, independents chose honesty, and Republicans prized patriotism.
Even more tellingly, what Democrats least valued was patriotism, with just 6% marking that as a value the country most needs today.
Overall, Gallup found that “though no single value is selected by a majority of Americans, freedom (38%), patriotism (32%), and service (30%) receive the most mentions.” Put another way, Democrats are out of step.
Regarding this finding, constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley soberly notes, “What is most alarming is that no shared value cracks fifty percent overall.” He further observes that while the lower ranking of some of these values does not mean Americans don’t value them, “it shows (as found in other polls) how far the two parties are apart on their perspectives of the country at this moment in history.”
Far apart indeed.
The troubling part is the Democrats’ lack of valuing patriotism. It’s no wonder their party is trying to fundamentally change America and expunge the values upon which this nation was founded.
They don’t love America for what it is; they apparently will only love America if and when it becomes the leftist socialist utopian pipe dream they envision. In a nutshell, that was the messaging behind Barack Obama’s notorious “hope and change” campaign slogan.
The message underneath that sentiment is that America, as it is and as it was founded, is not good enough or worth fighting and dying for. Indeed, Michelle Obama’s 2008 comment exemplified this view. After her husband had secured the Democrat nomination, she said, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country ... not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.”
Michelle deservedly took flak for that statement, but nothing indicated she wasn’t speaking her true feelings.
This divide between America’s cultural and political values appears to have only grown since ’08. That’s because, in many ways, the two parties stand on opposite sides of issues that are, by their very nature, binary.
An obvious example of this is the debate over transgenderism. Conservatives recognize the biological reality that sex is binary. Democrats, on the other hand, reject this reality, citing an individual’s expressed “feelings” as the supreme determiner of gender. Where is the middle ground on this issue? There is none because the question itself is binary. We are born either male or female; we can’t be both.
Thus, the obvious political divide is that those attempting to have it both ways — i.e., Democrats — offer troubling nonsensical policies: They “support” women, yet protect gender-confused men and male predators who enter into female spaces and insist on the “right” to be recognized as the opposite gender.
The divide over patriotism is interesting because the term doesn’t express a specific political worldview. Boiled down, patriotism flows out of an inherent commitment to and love for one’s country. This raises the question: Do Democrats not love America?
One my argue that to ask is to answer.
To be fair, the term “patriotism” has been increasingly associated with the Right and has become shorthand for conservatism. Nobody wonders what side of the aisle The Patriot Post occupies. Given its common usage, it is understandable why so many Democrats may be reticent about the word “patriot.”
That said, it is still notable that Democrats more often trumpet and admire the systems of other nations, especially those in Europe, over and against America’s constitutional Republic. And by “equality,” they mean equality of result, which is not what the Founding Fathers thought was right.
Finally, which of the three values listed by Gallup would you, dear reader, say the country needs most today?
