By At some point, it’s just weird and leaves you wonder why they even want so much power anyway. Patriotism finished dead last among Democrats asked which values America needs most, according to a new Gallup survey that exposes a striking partisan divide as voters prepare for the midterm elections.
Just 6 percent of Democrats selected patriotism among their top three priorities, compared with 46 percent of Republicans, who placed it first. The 40-point gap was the largest partisan difference in the Gallup–With Honor survey, which asked Americans to choose from 12 values. Independents landed between the parties, with 15 percent selecting patriotism.
New Gallup poll asks "which values the country most needs today?"
Out of a list of 12 values, Republicans put "patriotism" #1, for Dems it ranks dead last – by a lot.
Dems say "equality" is most needed, Republicans rank it 11th out of 12. pic.twitter.com/UmyUjVptnD
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) October 26, 2026
The definition hardly demanded unquestioning loyalty to Washington. Respondents were told patriotism meant “caring about your country and wanting it to live up to its ideals.” Even under that definition, Democrats placed it behind every other option, including humility, kindness, and service.
Democrats instead prioritized equality, selected by 44 percent, followed by fairness at 34 percent and honesty at 32 percent. Republicans put responsibility and honesty behind patriotism, while just 10 percent selected equality. The question measured which values respondents thought the country most needed, rather than whether they personally loved or disliked America.
But the results follow a broader decline in Democrats’ expressed national pride. In Gallup’s 2025 survey, only 36 percent of Democrats said they were extremely or very proud to be American, down from 62 percent in 2024. Among Republicans, that figure stood at 92 percent, up from 85 percent a year earlier. The Democratic decline accompanied Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The divide persisted during America’s 250th anniversary year. Gallup’s 2026 national-pride findings showed that just 14 percent of Democrats were extremely proud to be American, compared with 70 percent of Republicans and 28 percent of independents. Those figures measure the strongest level of pride, rather than the combined categories used in the earlier comparison.
Democrats want voters to trust them with the country’s future, but their voters put caring about that country at the bottom of the list of values America needs most. Disliking a Republican president is one thing. Letting national pride rise and fall with the party’s political fortunes suggests that, for too many Democrats, America is worth celebrating only when they get to run it.
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