Americans Share What Patriotism Means to Them

Independence Day is the nation’s most patriotic holiday, and Americans celebrate it with abandon. On this day of parades, baseball games, hot dogs, and sparklers, even the stodgiest old uncle may arrive at the family cookout wearing a red-white-and-blue top hat and suspenders. By day’s end, some 260 million pounds of commercial fireworks will be lit, filling city skies with splendor and leaving the air in suburban neighborhoods thick with the smell of smoke and sulfur. Americans love to display their patriotism. Yet there is little agreement on what that means. The majority—some 55 percent—of Americans think the United States has become a less patriotic nation in recent years, according to a Marist poll released on July 1. Only 14 percent think Americans have become more patriotic....