WASHINGTON — Despite the country’s deep political polarization, most Americans share many core beliefs about what it means to be an American, a new poll shows.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about 9 in 10 American adults consider the right to vote, the right to equal protection under the law and the right to privacy extremely important or very important to the United States. identity as a nation. The survey also showed that 84% think the same about freedom of religion.
The results, which include perspectives on a number of different freedoms and rights, show only minor differences between Republicans and Democrats, except on the right to bear arms, which Republicans are more likely to see as core to the country’s identity. The overall findings are striking because they come at a time of extreme partisanship, when political agreements appear rare and concerns about the potential for violence are growing during a volatile presidential election year.
“If you randomly put a bunch of normal people together in a room and talk about issues, there is a lot more convergence than you might think,” says Michael Albertus, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago.
A more pessimistic assessment of the country was reflected in another finding: Only about three in 10 Americans believe the country’s democracy is functioning well. About half say the US is a poorly functioning democracy, while 14% say the US is not a democracy.
The tension between broad consensus on the country’s fundamental values and dissatisfaction with how well the form of government is working is no surprise, experts say.
“Some of that is because our leaders are not reflecting the electorate and are behaving in a way that is much more polarized than the electorate,” said Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University.
Most Americans, she said, “are quite moderate, but they have become enraged by hating people from the other party because they are culturally, racially and religiously different from them.”
The AP-NORC poll also found broad agreement on the importance of some key values to America’s identity as a country. About three-quarters of American adults agree that a democratically elected government is extremely or very important, and about eight-in-ten feel the same about the ability of people living in the U.S. to get good jobs and achieve the American dream .
But what realizing that dream means—and what values are most fundamental to American culture—is not something all Americans agree on.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans — 71% to 38% — to believe that the ability to come to the U.S. from elsewhere in the world to escape violence or find economic opportunity is core to the country’s identity. A majority of Republicans, 58%, think a culture based on Christian values and beliefs is an essential characteristic, compared to just 18% of Democrats.
Juan Sierra, 51, a naturalized citizen whose family emigrated from the Dominican Republic after a hurricane destroyed his father’s cement business, said it is very important to him that the U.S. be seen as a place of opportunity.
The industrial technician in Port St. Lucie, Florida, said he believes democracy works and will continue to do so “as long as there are good people in government.”
Sierra also said it is extremely important that people have freedom of religion, although he is concerned about the connection of the country’s identity with Christianity.
“We’re seeing what’s happening right now when laws are passed and decisions are made based on someone’s religion,” he said, citing the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling in February that frozen embryos can be considered children and have legal protections can get, a decision that temporarily halted IVF procedures in the state.
Susan Johnson, a 76-year-old Republican who lives in the Dallas suburbs, said the country’s position as a beacon for others needing shelter is very important, but said that cannot alleviate concerns about border security.
“We need people working,” she said. “We just need them to move in the right direction.”
Johnson also said she believes it is extremely important that the country’s identity is based on spirituality.
“Whether you’re Mormon or Muslim or Christian or not, they just need to have a higher power that they can reach,” she said. “The country is going to fall apart if we don’t believe in God.”
The poll found that there was little theoretical division over democracy as a system, but it did identify one notable divide: Younger Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were less likely than those 60 and older to say that the U.S. is a well-functioning democracy. They are also less likely than older Americans to believe that some characteristics are essential to the character of the US as a nation, including having a democratically elected government. About 6 in 10 younger adults consider this important, compared to about 9 in 10 older adults.
Palakjot Singh, a 21-year-old college student from Fresno, California, identified himself as a Republican and said he had a better quality of life when Donald Trump was president. He said the US is not a well-functioning democracy in part because people are not open to debating different points of view than previous generations.
“There is no good communication,” he said. “No one sits together to arrive at one point.”
Howard Lavine, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the generational divide is understandable. Many younger people cannot remember a time when people with opposing views and different political backgrounds could come together and “come to your house.” Their frame of reference is the hyper-partisanship of the Trump years, he said.
Joe Lagle, 55, a retired Air Force veteran in Colorado Springs who said he did not vote for President Joe Biden or Trump, said the country’s diverse rights are “all important” but believes they are being eroded by intolerance and well-meaning, but short-sighted people.
Mike Maloy, 41, an engineer in Greensboro, North Carolina, said having these rights and freedoms “does not necessarily mean that the U.S. is a functioning democracy.”
“Everything is run by a handful of people and their companies,” he said. “That’s not democracy.”
Maloy, a Democrat, cited as an example this year’s presidential primary in North Carolina, when Biden was the only candidate on the ballot. He called that “frustrating” and said the result was that voters “had no choice.”
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The survey of 1,282 adults was conducted March 21-25, 2024, using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for all respondents.
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Associated Press polling writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.
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