Can California Get Its Patriotism Back this July 4th?

American patriotism is at an all-time low. Ahead of our nation’s 250th birthday celebration, a new poll found that just 33% of Americans say they are extremely proud to be American.[1] That's a stunning decline from the 70% who said the same in the months after the September 11th terrorist attacks 25 years ago.[2]

California is ground zero for this crisis. Only 12% of Democrats, the party that dominates our state politically, say they are extremely proud to be American – compared to 62% of Republicans!

But this Fourth of July, we have a choice. We can continue down the path that has made patriotism controversial, apologizing for love of country rather than celebrating it. Or we can reclaim a healthier, more honest patriotism that recognizes both our imperfections and our extraordinary blessings, both in our country and our state. 

So today, we're going to explore why love of country is declining, define what patriotism is and should be, and talk about how each of us can help change the narrative and rebuild a culture of patriotism – even right here in California.

Why is Patriotism Declining?

Why is patriotism declining? Let’s start with the data.

In 2025, polls found that American pride had dropped to the lowest level ever recorded.[3] This wasn’t just a dip, it was a historic low, and we see in polling this year that the trend has only worsened. We can argue about what the numbers mean, but we cannot argue about the direction they’re moving. But what’s even more disturbing to me is not just the decline in patriotism, but the radical partisan breakdown that makes this trend specifically a California story. California is an overwhelmingly Democratic state in a moment when Democratic pride in America has collapsed – and that matters for any of us who care about culture, conservatism, and our country.

But the numbers are clearly not the cause, they’re just the symptom that is indicating to us that something is off. When your stomach hurts, the problem is not the stomach pain, it’s whatever is causing the pain. So, if you just take medication to make the pain go away, that doesn’t address its source. The same is true for this decline. There are symptoms of it that we see in society and across the media, but if we want to stop the bleeding, then we need to get to the causes.

There are several different causes that have contributed to the decline in patriotism, but let’s start pulling on loose threads to unravel the true problems. One standout issue is what happened to how we teach American identity. In March of this year, CalMatters ran a piece on how California’s civics teachers are handling America’s 250th anniversary in the classroom. The headline alerted readers that teachers are “treading lightly.”[4] The article explained that teachers are caught between competing narratives, worried about saying the wrong thing, afraid to be too celebratory about the country’s birthday in the country’s birthday year.

That is wildly disturbing to anyone who understands the beacon of hope and freedom that America was in her day and is still TODAY! But for years, our curriculum has shifted away from teaching the incredible nature of our country’s founding and all that it meant for the world and instead has moved toward critiquing it. Textbooks spend pages on American failures and barely mention the ideas and institutions that made self-correction possible in the first place. Students are graduating having learned a great deal about what went wrong in American history – and almost nothing about why the framework that allowed us to address those wrongs was remarkable and worth preserving.

The result, as the American Enterprise Institute puts it, is that “students learn to see themselves as outsiders to a civic tradition they were never taught to claim.”[5] If you are never taught to claim it as your own, as your heritage and tradition that gave you life as you know it, then you never grieve losing it. You were never really given it to begin with.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the French writer who came to America in the 1830s and wrote the most perceptive account of what made this country actually work, warned that the greatest threat to a republic was not foreign conquest, but was internal disengagement.[6] Citizens who stopped participating, stopped caring, stopped identifying with the common project. He observed that Americans’ genius was their habit of forming civic associations for everything,[7] meaning they showed up, they argued, they governed themselves. He said this habit of civic participation was the secret of American strength.

Does that sound like our society today? What happens when we stop teaching people why it’s worth showing up? That America is not worth fighting for, defending, or preserving, but instead needs to be dismantled?

What Patriotism Is…and Isn’t  

But education is just the beginning of the thread that explains why patriotism in our country is unravelling. When you pull that thread all the way, the deeper issue becomes the lack of understanding – or rather the inherent twisting – of what patriotism truly is, and why it is important. The word has been so politically loaded, so weaponized from all sides, that it is worth going back to the source and asking: what did the people who founded this country actually mean by it, and why is it important to our culture?

The Declaration of Independence, signed 250 years ago this week, opens with what is probably the most famous sentence in American political history: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Those words were not simply poetry, they were a precise political philosophy. Government’s job is to protect your rights, which already exist independent of it, and then get out of the way.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in his First Inaugural Address: “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”[8] Jefferson defined what our government was for and set the basis for what America would become. This would not become a country built on the divine right of kings, inherited privilege, or rigid social classes – this would be a country for and by the people. People who were created by God, and therefore must be governed with dignity, morality, and liberty.

Understanding this purpose, John Adams wrote of patriotism as something you owe to the people who came before you. He wrote: “You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it.”[9] That is the very heart of it – gratitude with a sense of obligation. It is a recognition that you inherited something that was purchased at great cost, by people who sacrificed more than most of us will ever be asked to sacrifice. The obligation is to understand what you inherited, to protect it, and to pass it on.

And Samuel Adams, the firebrand of Boston, the man who more than almost anyone lit the fuse of the Revolution – put the alternative plainly. Speaking in Philadelphia on August 1st, 1776, just weeks after the Declaration was signed, he said: “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom – go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”[10] That is harsh! But it was meant to be. His point was serious: a people who do not love their liberty enough to fight for it will eventually lose it to their own comfort and apathy.

So, patriotism, according to our founding fathers, is 1) a recognition of the unique and blessed privileges that our system of government provides, 2) a sense of personal gratitude for the immense sacrifice that was required to establish that system so that we, generations later, could live in liberty, and 3) a duty to actively preserve and protect that freedom because we value it and love the country that made it possible. 

And yet, if you look around at what our culture says today, you will think that every single one of those things is a problem. Recognizing that America is uniquely blessed is considered cultural arrogance. Feeling gratitude for the sacrifices of the people who came before you is naive. Wanting to protect and preserve the system they built is violent and dangerous. The message from our universities, our media, and frankly a lot of our classrooms is that a good, thoughtful, educated person looks at America with suspicion and shame. Pride in this country is something you have as a child and then should grow out of. But instead of arguing back, a lot of people just drop it because they don’t want to be called racist or stupid. This drift away from patriotism is largely borne out of social pressure and apathy to understanding the depth and richness that our heritage truly has.

Now, I want to be clear about something. I am not describing blind nationalism. I am not saying America is perfect, or that its history has no dark chapters. Because the simple fact is that you do not need to believe that America is perfect to feel extremely proud to be an American. It is a fallacy to say so. And the most powerful argument for this kind of patriotism actually comes from someone who had every reason to reject the country entirely.

Frederick Douglass was enslaved. He literally lived through the worst of what America was capable of, and what many consider her deepest sin. In 1852, he gave a famous speech asking, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” which was a ferocious indictment of American hypocrisy. And yet, Douglass did not call for the country’s destruction. He called the nation to live up to its founding promises. He called the Constitution “a glorious liberty document.”[11] Not because it was perfect, but because it contained within it the framework for justice, if the people were willing to demand it. He writes, “Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.”[12]

That is the patriotism I am talking about. Douglass fiercely called out the sins of the nation, he did not deny its transgressions, nor did he demand blind loyalty. He demonstrated faith in the very framework of our country. He had and wanted others to have gratitude for what was built and commitment to the ongoing work of making the country live up to the ideals it was founded on. If he could do it then, we must commit to the same today.

The Founders built something remarkable. They knew it was imperfect because every country will be imperfect. They expected us to improve it! What they would not have anticipated, and what Samuel Adams himself railed against, was any idea that a generation would come along and decide the whole project was not worth defending. Our current culture’s attitude toward our country is not worthy of the labors, dedication, sacrifice, and genius of our founders. 

How to Rebuild Love of Country – Even Here

With all of that said, how do we get it back?

The Founders understood that patriotism does not maintain itself. Self-governance at its core is a skill, which means we need to exercise and get better at it.

First, in schools, we have to demand that the founding documents be taught as primary sources. They can’t just be glanced over in summaries or filtered through modern ideological frameworks. Documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers are not “right-wing” documents. They are the foundation of our country, and every student in California deserves to read them, in full.

This is why local school boards matter SO much! You may never be able to change our state politics at the upper levels, but you elect your local school board leaders. You can show up to their meetings or even run for a seat yourself. You do not need the Governor’s permission to demand better civics education in your district. 

Second, in your community, make the symbols visible. I know this sounds simple, but when you think about patriotic communities, what do they have in common? The flag flies! The reality is that cultures are built and preserved through repeated, visible acts. A culture that never supports or displays its values will eventually lose them. So do the things that reinforce strong community bonds. Display the flag, go to the parade, bring your kids to the Memorial Day celebration, support your local veterans’ organizations – these are not small acts! They are how you maintain your identity despite a shifting culture.

Last and most importantly, in your own household, teach American history and love of country. Do not outsource this entirely to public schools and popular culture and then be surprised when it comes back unrecognizable. Parents are the first civics teachers! It only takes about ten minutes to read the Declaration of Independence with your kids today. And then, ask them what they think it means, which grievances sound familiar, what Jefferson meant by the pursuit of happiness, and so much more. I promise you will have a better conversation than most civics classrooms are having right now. What you teach your children to value is the foundation everything else is built on, so teach them to value the country God has placed them in and the blessings it has given them.

America’s 250th Independence Day

So, my friends, America turns 250 this year! Two hundred and fifty years that we have endured! She has survived a civil war, two world wars, a Great Depression, a Cold War, and great political upheaval. She can certainly survive a crisis of public confidence like we are seeing today, but only if enough people decide to change the narrative. 

California is the largest state in the country, the most populous, one of the most economically powerful places on earth. What California believes about America matters! But right now, what our state believes is trending in the wrong direction. The way we change that direction starts with individuals, families, and local communities deciding that we will acknowledge all the blessings we have been given in this country and choosing to raise the next generation in light of that gratitude.

John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail on July 3rd, 1776 – the day before the Declaration was adopted – and he described what he believed this day would come to mean. He wrote: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival… with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”[13]

I hope that your July 4th is full of all of this and more – and that we remember this celebration is not just tradition, but a responsibility to preserve what was won for us.

 
References:

[1] Allen, Jonathan. “Poll: America at 250 Is Riven With Doubt and Pessimism — but With Glimmers of Hope.” NBC News, June 15, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/poll-america-250-riven-doubt-pessimism-glimmers-hope-rcna348912.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Jones, Jeffrey M. “American Pride Slips to New Low.” Gallup.Com, June 30, 2025. https://news.gallup.com/poll/692150/american-pride-slips-new-low.aspx.

[4] Jones, Carolyn. “California Teachers Tread Lightly for America’s 250th as They Navigate Competing Narratives.” CalMatters, March 12, 2026. https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2026/03/high-school-civics-california/.

[5] Abrams, Samuel. “Declining Patriotism Signals a Civic Education Crisis—But Reform Is Possible.” American Enterprise Institute, July 29, 2025. https://www.aei.org/op-eds/declining-patriotism-signals-a-civic-education-crisis-but-reform-is-possible/.

[6] De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. Excerpts from the Original Electronic Text at the web site of American Studies, University of Virginia. Hanover College History Department, 1831. https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111toc.html.

[7] “Tocqueville: Book II Chapter 5,” n.d. https://www.uvm.edu/~gflomenh/courses/ENV-NGO-PA395/articles/ch2_05Toqueville.htm.

[8] Jefferson, Thomas. “Inaugural Address,” by The American Presidency Project (Washington, D.C., United States of America, March 4, 1801), https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/inaugural-address-19.

[9] Adams, John. “Letter From John Adams to Abigail Adams.” Massachusetts Historical Society, April 26, 1777. https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17770426ja.

[10] “Samuel Adams Heritage Society,” n.d. https://www.samuel-adams-heritage.com/quotes/freedom-liberty.html.

[11] Douglass, Frederick. “WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?” CONSTITUTION 101, n.d. https://constitutioncenter.org/media/files/12.3_Primary_Source__Frederick_Douglass%2C_What_to_the_Slave_is_the_Fourth_of_July_%281852%29_.pdf.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Adams, “Letter From John Adams to Abigail Adams.”