Despite hearing incessant claims in the media and classrooms for years that the United States is inherently evil, at least 70% of more than 2,500 Americans surveyed by the Discovery Institute agree with the statement that “all things considered, America remains the best nation on earth.”

“For those who love America, the survey results include much that is heartening. But they also carry some sobering warnings about the future,” said John West in the survey analysis entitled “How Americans View the American Founding.”

Among the numerous encouraging results from the survey, West pointed primarily to these:

• 64% believe that “the original Constitution and Bill of Rights should be admired because they advanced human freedom and equality more than anything before them.”
• 64% believe that “despite their faults, America’s Founders should be admired for how they tried to establish a government that guarantees both liberty and equal ”
• 78% agree that “by proclaiming the principles of equality and liberty, America’s Founders set up a good standard for later generations to follow, and that is what Americans did by abolishing slavery and establishing civil rights for all.”
• By contrast, only 22% of Americans think that “because America’s Founders protected slavery, America is forever tainted by ”
• The majority of Americans continue to revere America’s major Founding Fathers: 76% admire George Washington, 78% admire Benjamin Franklin, and 72% admire Thomas Jefferson. Smaller majorities admire Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams, and Samuel Adams.

“The above beliefs are held by a majority of Americans regardless of gender or ideology. For example, even 66% of self-identified liberals/progressives agree that ‘by proclaiming the principles of equality and liberty, America’s Founders set up a good standard for later generations to follow, and that is what Americans did by abolishing slavery and establishing civil rights for all,’” West reported.

“By contrast, only 34% of progressives think that ‘because America’s Founders protected slavery, America is forever tainted by racism.’ The beliefs are also held by a majority or plurality of Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Americans age 35 or older,” he continued.

The same general trend is seen among Americans aged 18-34 in at least one area. Sixty-five percent of the younger respondents agreed that by establishing individual liberty and human equality as basic principles of the Constitution, the Founders set a positive example for later generations to follow.

But the Discovery Institute survey did uncover significant and discouraging generational differences. Only 50.2% of the young segment of survey respondents said the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are deserving of admiration for putting emphasis on advancing human freedom and equality. In addition, only a plurality, 45%, said the Founders deserve admiration for seeking to establish a new government that protects both individual liberty and equality.

Sadly, the survey also revealed that most Americans do not know what the Declaration of Independence says.

“The Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous documents in history. Yet only a minority of Americans today can correctly identify it as the source of its most famous passage: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness …’ Less than 5 in 10 Americans (45%) know that these words come from the Declaration. That figure goes down the younger people become. Only 3 in 10 Americans ages 18-24 can correctly identify these words as having come from the Declaration,” West said.

Other encouraging results from the survey included these:

• 78% of Americans think that “all human beings are created equal” is true.
• 85% of Americans think that “all human beings have an unalienable right to life” is true.
• 85% of Americans think that “all human beings have an unalienable right to liberty” is true.

These results stand in stark contrast to other recent surveys on similar issues, notably that of a Morning Consult poll conducted for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in the nation’s capital, that found “nearly half (46%) of Americans don’t know what America’s 250th anniversary commemorates. A little more than half (53%) correctly answered that it was the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.”

The Cato survey also found substantial numbers of Americans surveyed expressed great worries about the future of the country, including “nearly 6 in 10 [who] believe the country has moved away from the founding principles, and 56% [who] worry the U.S. could stop being a free country within the next 50 years. People believe corruption, concentrations and abuse of power, and ignoring founding principles could lead to the country’s demise,” Cato said.

The Cato questioning also found that “Americans support constitutional limits, dividing power, and checking the power of the president to maintain their freedoms. For instance, 58% say no political party should be trusted with too much power, 55% say the US Constitution should place firm limits on what the government is allowed to do, even if it makes it harder to solve problems, and 72% say the president should have to obey Supreme Court rulings even when he disagrees.”

And only 20% of Democratic voters surveyed by Elon University said they are proud to be Americans, according to the New York Post, compared to more than 66% of Republican respondents who said they are proud to be Americans.

“Those surveyed were asked what term best described how they felt when they thought about the United States marking its semi-quincentennial anniversary, and Dems had almost nothing good to say. Just 18% of self-described Democrats said they felt ‘Proud’ and only 17% felt ‘Grateful,’ according to polling conducted by Elon University and published on Tuesday. A bigger number of Democrats (21%) said they felt ‘Conflicted’ about America, 15% ‘Disappointed,’ 6% ‘Frustrated,’ and nearly a quarter (24%) had ‘No strong feelings,’ the survey showed,” the Post explained.