FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 27, 2006
POLLS ON PATRIOTISM AND MILITARY SERVICE
Just prior to Independence Day, American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Karlyn Bowman (bio) is releasing a comprehensive collection of polls on patriotism and military service. This study documents how patriotic sentiments have changed over time and examines how 9/11 affected Americans' views of their country. A section of the report looks at young people's attitudes.
Among the highlights of this collection:
Americans think of themselves as patriotic. When Gallup asked “how proud are you of being an American” last year, 83 percent of those surveyed said that they were either extremely or very proud. Only 1 percent said they were "not at all proud" and another 3 percent "only a little" proud.
Fox News/Opinion Dynamics’ May 2006 polling found that 17 percent of those asked said that they would leave the United States permanently and live in another country if given the opportunity. (The poll did not explore the question of why people wanted to leave.) When broken down by party, 8 percent of Republicans and 24 percent of Democrats said they would leave.
By and large, Americans do not equate support for the Iraq war with patriotism. In March 2006, CBS News found that 83 percent of Americans believed that an individual can still be patriotic if he or she does not support the war in Iraq.
To read the full study, please click here <http://www.aei.org/ publicopinion9>.