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Poll: Politics shapes patriotism, from the US to the UK

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3 weeks ago

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What does it mean to be patriotic? It depends on a country’s politics.

Pride in one’s country is itself relatively common, according to new results from an international edition of The Blue Light News Poll: Majorities of adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, France and Germany all say they are proud of their country.

But that pride looks different in each country. Expressions of patriotism are shaped by a nation’s history and politics. And in a complex political moment when voters’ relationship with each other, their political parties and their countries continues to shift — and nationalist populist movements continue to rise, claiming patriotism as their own — what it means to be patriotic is evolving.

In America, the flag has become a defining feature of national pride, a symbol increasingly claimed by Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. In Canada, people find pride in their political leaders as they seek to counter Washington’s influence. And in Germany, the country’s Nazi history continues to loom over current debates about nationalism.

The survey, conducted by the independent London-based firm Public First, underscores how cultural and political debates shape subtle differences in patriotism across six major democracies of the West.

Tensions over immigration and culture have roiled Europe and the U.S., with right-wing parties often making national identity central to their political message. The symbols and rituals of patriotism also distinguish countries from one another — from debates over what students are taught in schools and whether they should be required to sing the national anthem, to differences in displays of the flag.

Here’s what stands out for each country.

Pluralities of adults in other countries — and 49 percent of Americans — say the U.S. has the most patriotic citizens. That’s partly because of its overt displays of patriotism, with Americans historically placing national flags on their lawns and outside restaurants and businesses, and leaders frequently wearing flag paraphernalia.

That embrace of the flag stands out. The U.S. flag has long been a revered symbol in the country, and most Americans (51 percent) say they own the national flag. That’s significantly more than adults in the other countries — for instance, just 22 percent of U.K. adults say they own a Union Jack and just 27 percent in France say they own a flag.

Still, the American flag has become somewhat partisan.

Trump and his MAGA movement have made patriotism and nationalism central to Republican politics, and more than 70 percent of his 2024 voters say they own an American flag. Just 44 percent of those who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris say the same. Trump voters are also more likely (52 percent) than Harris voters (33 percent) to say that displaying a national flag outside your house is considered an act of patriotism.

Near-majorities of adults in the U.S., the U.K., France, Spain and Canada say their country should be proud of its history. Germany is the outlier, due to its Nazi past.

Just 24 percent of Germans say the country should be proud of its history. A majority — 53 percent — say the country should neither be proud nor ashamed. Still, only 14 percent say Germany should be ashamed, and a 61 percent majority say they feel the country has “done enough to apologize for the bad things it did in the past” — potentially helping explain why most Germans say they feel neutral of the country’s history.

Politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have argued that the country should reclaim a sense of national pride, including by reshaping childhood education so it involves “less Hitler,” as one version of a manifesto published by a regional branch of the party put it. Forty-one percent of voters who plan to back AfD in future elections say Germany should be proud of its history — more than double the number of total adults who say the same.

While such ideas were once considered politically fringe in Germany, they have increasingly moved into the mainstream. The AfD is in first place in national polls, in front of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives, and it’s even further ahead in two eastern states in which regional elections are set for September.

Amid a growing anti-incumbency backlash across the West, Canada stands out.

When asked what makes them most ashamed of their country, just 22 percent of Canadians pointed to their leaders — significantly lower than the 40 percent of Americans, 45 percent of Brits, 52 percent of the French, 43 percent of Germans and 50 percent of Spaniards.

There’s a reason for their more positive outlook on the government. Aided by Trump’s trade war and what have become routine threats to turn Canada into the “51st state,” Mark Carney, a rookie politician, managed to revive Canada’s Liberal Party and win office in April 2025 with promises to stand up to Washington while transforming the oil-rich country into an energy superpower. Carney is even popular in Western Canada — traditionally Conservative territory — thanks to pipeline promises and his rollback of Justin Trudeau-era climate policy. A recent Leger poll showed he’s more popular than any other politician in Quebec.

While the majority of adults across the European countries surveyed expressed national pride, Spaniards are on a different level. A 52 percent majority pick Spain as the best place to live, while most adults in the U.K. and France pick other countries over their own.

That showed up when we asked about pride in nationality, too: A strong 76 percent majority of adults say they are proud to be Spanish, compared with the 68 percent who are proud to be British, 71 percent who are proud to be French and 60 percent who are proud to be German.

In Spain, national pride goes beyond its politics — which has been and is still somewhat tumultuous. Spaniards are reckoning with the echoes of Francisco Franco’s decades-long dictatorship, competing pro-independence movements in regions like Catalonia and the Basque Country, and an ongoing deep dissatisfaction with the way their country is being run.

And still, they exhibit a more optimistic sense of national pride than their European counterparts, partly because of the country’s status on the world stage, through its athletic success as well as its reputation as a tourism and culture hub.

France’s national anthem, the Marseillaise, is a revered national symbol that dates back to the French Revolution.

Most adults in France, 57 percent, say children should be made to sing the national anthem in school, a view that cuts across partisan lines but is most popular among the far-right National Rally (74 percent) and the centrist Ensemble party (67 percent). Meanwhile, just 42 percent of U.K. adults, 32 percent of German adults and 26 percent in Spain say the same.

More broadly, just like the kneeling protests in the NFL provoked outrage among American conservatives, jeering and booing as a form of protest during the French national anthem at sporting events usually stokes controversy — though in France, the furor is often from across the political spectrum.

Ten years after Brexit initiated, an effort to take back control of the U.K., The Blue Light News Poll suggests British attitudes toward patriotism remain somewhat pessimistic — and broadly aligned with those elsewhere in Europe.

A 46 percent plurality of adults in the U.K. say “you can’t say you’re proud to be British anymore without being judged,” about on par with the share who say the same in other European countries. Though similar shares of U.K., French and Spanish adults say their countries should be proud of their histories, similar shares of them — and German adults — also say they’re ashamed of their leaders now.

The findings suggest that while Brexit reshaped Britain’s relationship with the European Union, whether it fundamentally changed the country’s sense of national identity is more complex. Other studies have revealed a multi-year decline in U.K. adults taking pride in the country’s achievements.

Blue Light News’s Tim Ross, Sue Allan, Joshua Berlinger, James Agelos and Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed to this report. 

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Politics

It might take ‘a lightning bolt from God’ to get these Senate Democratic hopefuls to bow for independents

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24 hours ago

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August 1, 2026

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Democrats vying for a pair of deep-red Senate seats are facing increasingly desperate calls from within their party to step aside for more promising independent candidates.

But they say they won’t drop out — unless there’s divine intervention.

Democrats Alani Bankhead of Montana and Julian Beaudion of South Dakota both told Blue Light News they have no plans to exit the race, despite pressure from national — and even some state — Democrats to step aside. Numerouspolls, coupled with strongerfundraising and campaign operations, show independents Seth Bodnar and Brian Bengs have a stronger — if still muddied — path to victory in November.

If the Democrats stay on the ballot, it will be almost impossible to claw these seats away from Republicans in Mountain West states that President Donald Trump dominated in 2024.

“I’m a person of faith. If a lightning bolt from God struck me and was like, ‘Alani, get out of the race,’ sure,” Bankhead told Blue Light News when asked if anything would change her mind. Otherwise, she said there’s “absolutely nothing.”

Beaudion has a similar resolve: “To be clear, we are not considering dropping out of the race,” he told Blue Light News.

By digging in, the Democrats could imperil their party’s hopes of regaining Senate control in an already uphill cycle. There’s broad agreement across the many factions of the Democratic Party that a crowded race relinquishes any hope of victory. Bengs has argued that Beaudion remaining on the ballot jeopardizes his chance of winning this fall against GOP Sen. Mike Rounds. Bodnar has maintained he has a viable path either way, and he could be helped out if the Libertarian candidate in the race pulls votes from Republican Kurt Alme.

The deadline to withdraw in South Dakota is Tuesday, and Montana’s is shortly after, on Aug. 10. Democrats across the ideological spectrum in Washington and their home states are calling on Bankhead and Beaudion to step down to help their party bank-shot a Senate majority, with the idea that a victorious independent candidate could caucus with a future Democratic majority — or at least not party up with Republicans.

“The math is inescapable. If it’s impossible for a Democrat to win, it is vital that the Democrats step aside and give the independent at least a shot of beating the Republican,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. “Beating the MAGA Republicans is priorities one, two and three. Who we beat them with is pretty far down the list.”

Democrats have already had some luck setting up one-on-one independent vs. Republican matchups in other Trump-won states. The Democratic candidate in Nebraska withdrew to pave the way for independent Dan Osborn — though an ongoing court case from a Democratic anti-abortion pastor could complicate things. And Idaho’s Democratic nominee recently dropped out in favor of independent Todd Achilles.

“Knowing that your campaign is not gonna break through, and just being able to recognize that is probably the hardest thing of all,” Achilles said of Democrat David Roth’s decision to step down. “I do appreciate what David did in Idaho.”

Bankhead and Beaudion insist they can win, even despite the headwinds. Bankhead expects to ride the anti-incumbency and pro-outsider wave into office, and Beaudion credits his relationships with voters throughout the state.

“Nobody ever knows what’s actually going to happen in an election,” Bankhead said. “The people decide on November 3.”

But Idaho and Nebraska Democrats reached a conclusion that Bankhead and Beaudion did not: The party’s brand is so tarnished in their states that the “D” label on the ballot line provides no viable path to victory.

“I am a professional partisan Democrat, and I have every incentive to be on the Democrat’s side here,” said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge 21st Century, an opposition-research firm. “But ultimately, the priority is to take the Senate majority away from Republicans. In some states, that path is very difficult to impossible for a Democrat. In those cases, it is both strategically and morally correct to take the path that is most likely to achieve the goal we’re going for.”

Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), did not go as far as to call for Bankhead and Beaudion to step aside. But he agreed that there’s real opportunity for independents who aren’t stuck with the Democratic brand’s baggage.

“Being someone who’s not associated with the two-party system right now helps you greatly in many parts of this country, particularly those that have much more rural and conservative tendencies,” said Shakir. “There’s frustration and anger with Trump, and there’s not as much of a love and appreciation for the Democratic Party.”

Shakir also said that competitive races in these red areas — even if the independents can’t pull off a win — could force Republicans to pull much-needed resources out of battleground races in order to defend their turf.

But he also offered a warning to his party: Talking too much about the independents’ strong fundraising and establishment backing risks tying them to the “donor class” and turning them “into a worse version of what people assumed of a Democrat.”

“You gotta give them the space to be both independent in mind and in spirit,” he said. “The argument for them is truly that they are building a movement in the state that people are hungry for, and that in the support of those people, they’re finding resonance. And that would be the argument for a Democrat to step aside.”

Republicans, meanwhile, are working to paint the independents and Democrats as one and the same. They’re also trying to elevate the Democrats in an attempt to stop the independents from gaining more traction: Trump on social media attacked Bankhead in July, ignoring Bodnar entirely.

“Democrat-backed independents all support the same socialist policies and middle-class tax hikes that made Democrats toxic across the country,” Joanna Rodriguez, the communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement. “Republicans will defeat them in November.”

The inside calls for Beaudion and Bankhead to step aside aren’t just coming from Washington. Many local Democrats in Montana and South Dakota have said publicly they should not continue their campaigns. Nancy Keenan, the former executive director of the Montana Democratic Party who has endorsed Bodnar, wrote in a June op-ed that “there is not a viable path for a Democratic victory in this race.”

Bennett, the Third Way co-founder, went further, saying if Democrats fail to flip the Senate in November, the blame would lie at the hands of Bankhead and Beaudion.

“If we fumble away a majority because these no hope candidates are too vain to get out of the race, that’ll be a political calamity,” he said. “These people need to understand that they will become pariahs.”

Bankhead doesn’t see it that way.

“I’m not swayed by it because I’m not here for power and money,” she said. “It’s still the old, rich D.C. powerful political circles that are trying to keep more progressive candidates out of the fight so they can maintain the status quo.”

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FCC chair Brendan Carr on Trump, free speech and his threats against broadcasters

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2 days ago

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July 31, 2026

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FCC chair Brendan Carr on Trump, free speech and his threats against broadcasters

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Mandela Barnes considering dropping out of Wisconsin governor race

Published

3 days ago

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July 30, 2026

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Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and his team are discussing dropping out of the crowded Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The conversations come as Democratic officials in the state brace for damaging media reports about Barnes expected to hit in the coming hours. Barnes and his team have been on calls Thursday to discuss how to proceed, according to the people, granted anonymity to share private details.

The primary had become increasingly messy as more moderate leaning Democrats like Barnes have tried to stave off Democratic socialist Francesca Hong’s rise, worried her victory could boost presumed Republican nominee Tom Tiffany. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement of David Crowley — who reentered the race in the final stretch — further complicated the moderate coalition.

A spokesperson for Barnes’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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