According to the poll only 38% of respondents said patriotism was very important to them, and only 39% said religion was very important. In 1998, those figures were 70% and 62% respectively.
The share of Americans who say that having children, involvement in their community and hard work are very important values has also fallen. Moreover, tolerance for others, which was ranked as very important by 80% of Americans as recently as four years ago, has fallen to 58%.Respondents were also split along political lines:
Some 21% in the survey said that America stands above all other countries in the world, a view that some call American exceptionalism. Half said that America is one of the greatest countries, along with some others. The share who said other countries are better than the U.S. rose to 27%, up from 19% when the same question was asked in 2016.
The biggest gap is between old and young. Only 23% of adults under age 30 said in the new survey that patriotism was very important to them personally, while 59% of seniors ages 65 or older said it was, and only 31% of younger respondents said that religion was very important to them, compared with 55% among seniors.
Furthermore, only 23% of adults under age 30 said that having children was very important.
The poll asked whether society had gone far enough—or had gone too far—when it comes to businesses taking steps to promote racial and ethnic diversity. Just over half of Republicans said society had gone too far, compared with 7% of Democrats. Some 61% of Democrats said diversity efforts hadn’t gone far enough, compared with 14% of Republicans.So, what accounts for the precipitous decline in how many Americans consider these matters to be important? Some possibilities suggested in the WSJ article were political division, the pandemic and a faltering economy, but none of these seem able to explain why people today wouldn't value family, religion and patriotism.
Three quarters of Republicans said society had gone too far in accepting people who are transgender, while 56% of Democrats said society hadn’t gone far enough.
Overall, 63% of people in the survey said that companies shouldn’t take public stands on social and political issues, while 36% of people said companies should take such stands. Among Republicans, 80% opposed companies doing so, while 56% of Democrats favored the idea.
Half of people in the survey said they didn’t like the practice of being asked to use gender-neutral pronouns, such as “they’’ or “them,’’ when addressing another person, compared with 18% who viewed it favorably. Some 30% of respondents under age 35 viewed the practice favorably, compared with 9% of seniors.
Whatever the reason, it appears that the United States will be a much different country twenty years from now than it is today and certainly very different from what it was in 1998.
I doubt that it will be better.