Generation X

Lee Greenwood may be “Proud to be an American,” but the same can't be said for a growing number of his countrymen and women. Those who identify as “extremely” or “very” proud to be American has dropped from 87 percent in 2001 to 58 percent in 2025.  In 2001, Republicans, Independents and Democrats were all within six points of each other in their reported national pride. But now there's a 56-point divide between Republicans (92 percent) and Democrats (36 percent). Republicans stay patriotic regardless of the presidency, while Democrats have dropped 24 percent since Trump's inauguration this year. Beyond political affiliation, it seems the younger a generation is, the less American pride its members have.

Republican fortunes are again on the upswing as the 2022 midterm elections loom. A series of Biden administration legislative wins over the summer, along with the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, appeared to be mitigating projected Democratic losses in November. But persistent inflation, a recessing economy, a worsening national crime wave, a slew of foreign policy embarrassments, and other gaffes have combined to put the Republicans back in a decisive lead. A New York Times/Siena College poll published on Monday gave the GOP a four-point advantage over the Democrats among likely voters. In most categories, the breakdown by age demographic is about what one might expect.

Kyrsten Sinema doesn’t care. She doesn’t care about your tweets. She doesn’t care about the constant vitriol from Jacobin-lite bloggers. She doesn’t care about CNN’s Manu Raju chasing her down the halls of the Capitol to ask her about the filibuster or “voting rights” for the fifth time that day, every day. She doesn’t care about what Chuck Todd is saying about her on Sunday mornings. She doesn’t care what the astroturfed Act Blue-funded activists are saying to her while they film her in the restroom. She doesn’t care about Joe Biden or his faltering presidency.

Long before her Senate confirmation hearings, we knew Judge Amy Coney Barrett was smart. A Supreme Court clerkship and prolific career in the legal academy added up to someone uncommonly capable of hard work. That she is Catholic with seven kids — the ‘dogma lives loudly in her’, to borrow Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s immortal slur — is well known. What we didn’t expect was the hearing’s greatest surprise: Judge Barrett is normal.That is no minor relief in an America that increasingly seems a little unhinged. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse came to the Senate floor bearing an incomprehensible series of partially hand-scrawled charts, like a conspiracy theorist storming a town hall.