The saddest number in the Reuters/Ipsos America 250 poll is not Donald Trump’s approval rating, which is bad enough. It is not the 77% of Americans who expect political violence to increase over the next five years. It is not even the 38% who doubt the United States will exist as a single country in 2276.

The saddest number is 30.

America reaches its 250th birthday not as a confident republic, but as an anxious one.

Only 30% of Americans say America is the greatest country in the world.

That doesn’t mean the rest hate the country. Polls can reveal what people are willing to say. They are notoriously bad at explaining why they say it. Forty-eight percent say America is one of many great countries. Thirteen percent say America is not great at all.

But the partisan split exposes the wound. Sixty-two percent of Republicans say America is the greatest country in the world. Only 11% of Democrats say the same. Among independents, the number is 20%.

We’re past mere disagreements over policy. People are no longer talking about the same country.

America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and Americans can barely agree what the birthday means. Seventy percent say observing the anniversary matters. But only 34% say they are likely to attend or view an America 250 event. Fifty-five percent say they are unlikely. Sixty-three percent say the events have become too political.

Even the Fourth of July no longer escapes the country’s partisan sorting. Asked what best describes the holiday, 42% call it “a day where I celebrate the United States of America.” Among Republicans, 65% choose that answer. Among Democrats, only 24% do.

Twenty-four percent of Democrats and independents say they will not celebrate at all, compared with 8% of Republicans.

Flags tell the same story. Forty-one percent of Americans say they will display a flag or bunting outside their home on July Fourth. Sixty-four percent of Republicans will. Twenty-seven percent of Democrats will. Thirty-three percent of independents will.

A flag should not require a party registration. Neither should gratitude.

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The Reuters/Ipsos poll is not an outlier. Gallup reported in 2025 that American pride had fallen to the lowest point in its polling history. In 2001, 87% of Americans said they were extremely or very proud to be American. After 9/11, that figure rose to 90%. Last year, it fell to 58%.

The partisan gap was immense: 92% of Republicans, 36% of Democrats, and 53% of independents said they were extremely or very proud to be American. PRRI’s 2026 America 250 survey was even bleaker: 51% of Americans said they were extremely or very proud of being American, down from 82% in 2013.

This problem cannot be solved by scolding. Some Democrats should be ashamed of their reluctance to love the country that shelters them. Some Republicans should be ashamed of mistaking loyalty to a president for loyalty to the republic. But contempt will not repair our civic fabric.

The more painful truth is that the presidency has become a proxy for the country. When their side holds the White House, Americans find it easier to say the country is good. When the other side holds it, the flag begins to look like a campaign banner, the holiday like a rally, and the anniversary like propaganda.

A healthy polity would know the difference between a country and an administration. Presidents come and go. The country remains. The Declaration remains. The graves remain. The songs remain. The old promises and principles remain.

But Americans struggle to make that distinction.

Still, the Reuters/Ipsos poll contains signs of life. Seventy-five percent say they value elections even when their party loses. Seventy-three percent say democracy is the best form of government. Seventy percent say the Declaration’s 250th anniversary should be observed. Sixty-one percent say celebrating July Fourth should make them think about America’s founding beliefs and ideals.

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Those are not the numbers of a dead country. They are the numbers of a seriously wounded one.

The distinction is vital because wounded countries can still heal. Dead ones obviously cannot. Americans have not forgotten the old civic language — at least not entirely. We still recognize liberty, democracy, the Declaration, the flag, and the Fourth. But those words now come carrying the stench of faction.

So America reaches its 250th birthday not as a confident republic, but as an anxious one. We still have fireworks, flags, cookouts, parades, and songs. Beneath the rituals sits a terrible question: Can a people remain one people when they no longer know how to be grateful for the inheritance?

Polls cannot answer that. They only show the wound.

A nation does not survive 250 years because its people are always proud of it. A nation survives when enough people love it through disappointment, correct it without despising it, and inherit it without pretending they invented it.

America doesn’t need citizens who pretend the wound is not there. It needs citizens who can see it clearly and love the country anyway.