Culture > America 250

America at 250: Why Have So Many Lost Faith in America?

The difference between criticizing America and rejecting America may determine the nation’s future.

Brian C. Joondeph | June 15, 2026

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, a new poll reveals something that would have been almost unthinkable just a generation ago.

According to an Elon University survey, roughly two-thirds of Americans say they would rather live in the United States than any other country.

What isn’t reassuring is that among Democrats, 55 percent would prefer to live somewhere else. Only 10 percent of Republicans feel the same way.

Think about that for a moment.

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A majority of Democrats would rather live in another country than the one that has produced more freedom, prosperity, innovation, and opportunity than any nation in human history.

The poll raises an uncomfortable question: Is American exceptionalism dying?

For most of our history, patriotism was not a partisan issue. Americans disagreed about taxes, wars, immigration, religion, and countless other issues. Yet most shared a common belief that America was a special place.

Not perfect. Not flawless.

Millions crossed oceans to get here. Others risked prison or death escaping communist regimes to reach American shores. Few people spent their lives plotting elaborate escapes from the United States. They escaped to America.

Today, however, many Americans have been taught a very different story.

Instead of viewing America as history’s greatest success story, they are taught to see it primarily as a catalog of sins: slavery, racism, colonialism, inequality, privilege, oppression, and climate destruction.

America’s greatest moral failing — slavery — was ultimately confronted through a bloody civil war that cost more than 600,000 lives. Few nations have shed so much blood correcting their own mistakes.

Every nation........

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