June 15, 2020 02:14 PM UTC

Republicans Will Need More Than 'Yay, America' in 2020

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• by: Colorado Pols

Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign was all about how America was totally the best country ever (or would be, if he were elected). The infamous “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) slogan has since morphed into the logically-inconsistent “Keep America Great” or “Transitioning to Greatness” tagline(s) as Trump’s re-election campaign steams forward.

Is America already “great” or are we still “transitioning to greatness”? New polling numbers from Gallup show that actual Americans don’t really believe that either message is accurate. In fact, Americans are less enthusiastic about ‘Merica! than they have ever been, which is not good news for Trump and other flag-draped Republicans.

As Chris Cillizza explains for CNN:

Just over 4 in 10 Americans (42%) said they were “extremely proud” to be an American, the lowest number to say so since Gallup began asking the question in 2001. The total of people saying they were “extremely” or “very” proud to be an American — 63% — was also the lowest ever measured by Gallup. [Pols emphasis]

The pride numbers have been falling since 2013 — although the drop accelerated considerably following 2016. At that point, more than 8 in 10 people said they were “extremely or “very” proud to be an American, with 52% falling in the “extremely proud” category. Those numbers have plummeted in the four years since.

These numbers are down significantly among Republican respondents, with 67% saying they are “extremely” proud of America (compared to 76% in 2019). What gives?

The effects of Donald Trump as president could also be playing a role in the declining numbers among Republicans. His handling of the government’s response to the pandemic has been uneven at best, and his calls for the police to “dominate” the streets during protests against police brutality and systemic racism were roundly criticized by even many within his own party.

The idea of an America in decline, or at least one in which fewer people are willing to say they are extremely proud to be a citizen of the United States, suggests that Trump’s promise of an American rebirth if he was elected president isn’t working.

President Trump is still going to hold his ‘Yay, America!’ political rallies — including one this weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma — and that message will no doubt continue to resonate with his rabid base of supporters. But for moderate voters who will decide the outcome of the 2020 election, it’s hard to argue that this approach can bear electoral fruit in November (though it’s still probably better than “The President Isn’t That Bad“).

But Trump isn’t the only Republican hoping to wrap himself in the American flag this fall. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has also been counting on a ‘Yay, America!’ sentiment to carry him to re-election in November. Earlier this year, Gardner suggested that Sen. Bernie Sanders, then one of the frontrunners for the Democratic Presidential nomination, didn’t actually like America. When Gardner spoke at President Trump’s Colorado Springs rally in February, he went heavy on the ‘Merica! rhetoric:

I believe in America. I believe in the power of this great nation. And I believe in all of you. And I just have one message for all of you and to our friends and allies around the globe. When it comes to America, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

This is a theme that Gardner has been pushing for quite awhile now. His re-election campaign rolled out a sappy “I believe in America” video last summer, featuring Gardner wielding his peak “say a lot of words but don’t actually say anything” powers. He also went heavy on this approach when he was addressing the Senate last September about his push to move the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado:

The only reason to oppose this move is if you don’t care about the people of the western United States, or you don’t think somehow the people of the western United States are smart enough to figure out how to run public lands, or to manage public lands.

If you don’t agree with the decision to move the BLM to Grand Junction, then you must hate America! This was silly in September 2019, and the latest polling numbers from Gallup indicate that it will be an even tougher sell in September 2020.

As relationship experts will tell you, true love is about embracing another’s flaws and faults as much as it is about seeking positive traits. You can still love America and push for it to grow and change…but that’s a narrative that makes much less sense for Republican incumbents.