Just over two-thirds of Americans say nation is in decline, poll finds
Just over two-thirds of Americans say the nation is in decline, and 60% say its best days are behind it, according to a new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll that captures a broad loss of faith in the country’s core institutions as it marks its 250th anniversary.
The poll found that under half of Americans say capitalism is working well, down from 60% about a decade ago. Only 12% said democracy is working very well or extremely well, and 56% said it is not working well, or even working at all — a higher share than in similar polls dating to 2020. Dissatisfaction with capitalism rose to 51%, up from 37% in 2015.
“A lot of people feel the American social contract, the informal sense of America working for everybody, is not working,” said Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “They don’t think the public institutions are delivering on the promise for them.”
Only 35% of respondents said they are fairly sure the nation offers people the ability to get good jobs and achieve the American dream. About three-quarters of Americans believe billionaires and large businesses have too much power in Washington and that working people have too little.
Partisan divisions emerged on pride in American history and the idea of American exceptionalism. Two-thirds of Republicans said they are very proud of American history, three times the share of Democrats who said the same. Nearly half of Republicans said America stands above all other countries, compared with 8% of Democrats and 13% of independents.
Values that once united Americans are now less important to many. Only 35% of respondents said patriotism is very important to them personally, down from over 60% in a 2019 Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey. Fewer than one-third said religion is very important, down from about half in 2019.
Gretchen Barton, a public opinion researcher in Pittsburgh who works with Democratic groups, said the poll aligns with her own research. “Americans don’t have a relationship that’s positive with their government,” she said. She added that Americans are hungry for a national purpose that crosses party lines. “That’s what America is all about, and we haven’t been inspired for that by our national figures for a long time.”
The poll found strong support for some traditional principles. Two-thirds of respondents said separation of church and state is extremely or very important to America’s national identity. Some 58% supported birthright citizenship, the constitutional principle that almost all children born on U.S. soil are citizens. Nearly 60% said immigration helps more than it hurts the U.S.
By a 14-percentage-point margin, more people said race relations in the country are bad rather than good — a less pessimistic view than in 2020, when the gap was 45 points after the killing of George Floyd. Black Americans held a far more negative view than other groups.
Across party lines, Americans share a sense of deep political dysfunction. Nearly three-quarters of respondents agreed that the country has become so divided that the government can no longer solve major problems, and that these differences will only grow.
The Wall Street Journal-NORC poll surveyed 1,862 adults, including oversamples of Black, Latino and Asian-American adults. It was conducted from June 11-18 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.