Trump's buffoonery helps to reduce patriotism in the US: Analyst

How Americans are continuing to tolerate the buffoonery, demagoguery and outright slide into a brutal totalitarianism of the United States is something an American political analyst wonders.

Myles Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on a new poll which has revealed that less Americans are identifying themselves as patriots two years into President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.

The Gallup poll, released on Monday, showed that only 47 percent of Americans were extremely proud to be American, down four points from 2016 and far from the peak of 70 percent in 2003.

The hike in lack of pride was mainly caused by a dip among Democrats whose number dropped from 45 percent in 2016 to 32 percent in 2018, Trump’s second year in office. The number also fell among independents by three points.

Republicans, on the other hand, have moved up six points under the Republican president.

Disillusionment among millennials

“During times of distress in the United States it isn’t surprising to see the sense of pride or patriotism decrease. The opposite is also true as we see when the US is singled out for attack, patriotism not only rises but goes atmospheric. September 11, 2001 was the best example how ‘everyone’ was an American, Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York was America’s mayor, and the whole world identified with America. Today we’re seeing a reverse and in many ways, it’s being led by millennials. Patriotism belonged to their parents’ generation,” Hoenig said.

“Younger people are becoming more and more disillusioned with all that’s going on. Political affiliation with the two main parties is dropping among them, especially for the Democrats. When they see immigrant families fleeing oppression, fear and terror and journey to the north, their hearts open up to them but they see their country not only turning their backs on them, but acting in ways they never knew was possible in the United States,” he stated.

“Democrats’ disillusionment with patriotism is solely party driven. For both parties, and maybe more for Democrats, the attainment of or maintenance of political power is their driving force. Unable to win the most winnable election in decades, it’s no surprise that they feel let down, but let down by America itself, not their own weaknesses and incompetency as a political party,” he stated.

“On the other hand, ‘Making America Great Again’ resonates with the hard core Trump supporters, just as ‘Morning in America’ did for Reagan supporters. What better time to rally around the flag and your president when enemies of the state are at your gate: the media, intellectuals, gays and lesbians, human rights supporters, liberals, anyone with a reasonable moral compass,” the activist said.

“As the noose of judicial investigation tightens ever so much around Trump’s neck, it’s all the more reasonable for more and more people to question how a country such as ours can continue to tolerate the buffoonery, demagoguery and outright slide into a brutal totalitarianism. It gets less and less likely for people to be patriotic when they are in such a tailspin away from the pretense that the United States is even a democracy, a representative government,” the analyst concluded.

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