Add The New York Post on Google They’re seeing red.
Fewer than half of Americans think capitalism is working — and support for democracy and patriotism has tanked in the last decade thanks to the nation’s pessimistic youth, according to a sobering new poll.
As the nation turned 250 years old, only 48% of Americans believe that capitalism is working well in the US, compared to 60% who said so a decade ago, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal and the National Opinion Research Center.
Just over half (51%) of those surveyed said American capitalism was working not too well or not at all well, the study showed.
The same study found just 12% of Americans believe democracy is working extremely or very well in the US, compared to a staggering 56% who said it is working not very well or not at all well.
Many of those who answered also felt that the American Dream, tying together democracy and capitalism, is further out of reach than ever before.
Just over a third (35%) of respondents said that the American Dream — that if you work hard, you’ll get ahead — still holds true, down from 53% in 2012.
In contrast, 48% said the American Dream once held true but no longer does, and 17% said it had never held true.
The survey was carried out before the nation celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and revealed a shocking lack of enthusiasm for the holiday, patriotism, and the nation’s history.
Under 40% of respondents said they were very proud of American history, while just over two-thirds (68%) said the nation was in decline.
Some 35% of Americans said patriotism was very important to them personally, down from 60% in a 2019 survey by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News.
Fewer than one-third said religion was very important to them, down from about half in 2019.
The numbers also revealed stark divisions along age and party lines.
Two-thirds of Republicans said they were very proud of American history, while only around 20% of Democrats said the same.
Nearly half of Republicans expressed a belief in American exceptionalism — the idea that the nation stands above all other countries — compared to just 8% of Democrats and 13% of Independents.
Younger Americans were also far more likely to be pessimistic about the nation and their future than older respondents.
Just 42% of 18-34-year-olds said capitalism was working very or somewhat well, compared to 56% of their counterparts in the 65+ baby-boomer category.
Similarly, just 18% of 18-34-year-olds described patriotism as very important to them, compared to 55% of over-65s.
The numbers come off the back of several key wins for far-left candidates across the US in the past year, many pushing anti-capitalism agendas and calling for socialism to overtake democracy.
They include New York City’s Mayor Zohrann Mamdani victory last November, as well as more recent wins last month for Democratic Socialists of America candidates in congressional primaries in New York and Colorado.
“A lot of people feel the American social contract, the informal sense of America working for everybody, is not working,” Republican think-tank writer Henry Olsen told the Wall Street Journal.
“They don’t think the public institutions are delivering on the promise for them,” he added.
