The Wall Street Journal and NORC released a poll revealing that Americans' confidence in core institutions—specifically capitalism and democracy—has sharply declined as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary. The survey indicates widespread voter disillusionment regarding economic opportunity and governance.
This darkening public mood has served as a catalyst for prominent political discourse. For instance, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently utilized an "America 250" address to directly confront these systemic flaws.
• The WSJ-NORC Data: The WSJ survey reflects a deeper societal anxiety. Respondents cited widening wealth inequality, political polarization, and the influence of major corporate wealth in elections as top drivers for their softening faith in the American Dream.
• The Mamdani Response: In a speech given at City Hall, Mayor Mamdani criticized the concentration of wealth and offered a critique of unregulated capitalism, arguing that the country’s foundation has historically been built by its working-class citizens.
• The Political Divide: This rhetoric has sparked a significant ideological debate. While progressive supporters praise this platform for focusing on systemic reform, critics and conservative commentators argue these messages present an unfairly bleak portrait of the nation’s achievements.
“Americans are losing confidence in two main pillars of society: capitalism and democracy.
Just under half of Americans say capitalism is working very well or even somewhat well, down from 60% who said so about a decade ago, according to a new Wall Street Journal-NORC survey. Only 35% are even fairly sure that the nation offers people the ability to get good jobs and achieve the American dream.
Confidence in the nation's system of government is even lower. Only 12% say democracy is working very well or extremely well, and a mere 16% say average citizens have considerable influence on politics.
The findings come as Americans this year celebrate the nation's 250th birthday, a moment that has surfaced sharp political divisions over many elements of national identity that unified the U.S. for decades. On July 4, President Trump delivered an address that focused on American greatness and honored the nation's war heroes and figures from history, including Davy Crockett, Theodore Roosevelt and Civil War hero William Carney, considered the first Black person to perform an act honored with the Medal of Honor given by Congress.
But the survey found that fewer than 40% of Americans said they were very proud of American history, and that faith is low in many of the traditional features of the country's national identity, including patriotism, the promise of the American dream and the country's self-image as a leader among nations.
Just over two-thirds of Americans say the nation that invented the airplane and the internet, and that led the Allies to victory in World War II, is now in decline. About 60% say the country's best days are behind it, not ahead. In both cases, majorities of Republicans agreed with large shares of Democrats and independents. The 56% who say democracy isn't working well, or even working at all, is a higher share than in similar polls dating to 2020.
Other questions showed the parties more divided in their views of America.
Two-thirds of Republicans said they were very proud of American history, three times the share of Democrats who said so. And Republicans in the survey stood apart in their belief in American exceptionalism, the long-held idea that the U.S. is unique or superior among nations.
Nearly half of Republicans said that America stands above all other countries in the world, compared with only 8% of Democrats and 13% of independents.
Younger Americans were far more likely than older respondents to hold a pessimistic view of the country and less likely to say patriotism, religion and other values that once unified the country were very important to them.
When the Journal asked about views of capitalism in 2015, some 37% said it wasn't working well, or working at all. Dissatisfaction with capitalism rose to 51% in the new survey. Democratic primary voters in Colorado last week and in New York City last month ousted centrist leaders in favor of those who call themselves democratic socialists or who say the government should provide universal healthcare or other services, often by taxing the wealthy.
Trump himself rose to power on a populist agenda that said the economic system had cheated the working class.
While the new survey didn't test support for socialism, it found that about three-quarters of Americans believe billionaires and large businesses have too much power in Washington and that "working people" have too little. A narrow majority, some 52%, agreed that corporate power comes at the expense of workers and consumers, and that the government should limit its influence and even share control of some businesses.
Gretchen Barton, a public opinion researcher in Pittsburgh who works for Democratic groups, said the poll reflected findings in her own research, in which Americans have told her that they feel like they are drowning economically, or sitting on a bench waiting for change, or like chess pieces being crushed.
Moreover, she said, Americans are hungry for national purpose that crosses party lines. "That's what America is all about, and we haven't been inspired for that by our national figures for a long time."
The survey found strong support for traditional principles that are at the center of other political battles in Washington. Two-thirds said that separation of church and state is extremely or very important to America's national identity. Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, in a draft report last month, said that separation of church and state had been widely misunderstood, and it asked the Justice Department to "clarify" the concept to ensure that Americans aren't barred from expressing their faith.
Some 58% in the survey supported birthright citizenship, the constitutional principle that almost all children born on U.S. soil are citizens. Trump last week said he would ask Congress to address the matter after the Supreme Court invalidated his executive order intended to curtail that right.
More broadly, nearly 60% said immigration helps more than it hurts the U.S., adding to evidence from polling that support for immigration has risen since Trump took office in 2017.
By 14 percentage points, more people said race relations in the country are bad rather than good. That was a far less pessimistic view than in 2020, just after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, when negative views of race relations outweighed positive views by 45 points. Black Americans held a far more negative view than other groups.
In several ways, Americans are united across party lines in their dissatisfaction. Those in both parties believe partisanship is a debilitating problem.
The Wall Street Journal-NORC poll surveyed 1,862 Americans, including oversamples of Black, Latino and Asian-American adults. It was conducted from June 11-18 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
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Patriotism, Religious Faith Lose Ground
Some 35% of respondents in the Wall Street Journal-NORC survey said patriotism was very important to them personally, down from more than 60% in a 2019 Journal/NBC News survey.
Fewer than one-third said religion was very important to them, down from about half in 2019.
Henry Olsen, a Republican think-tank writer in Washington, said he understood why the nation greeted the 250th anniversary of its founding last weekend with relatively muted celebrations. He remembers America's 200th birthday in 1976 as "an orgy of patriotism," with the U.S. Mint issuing commemorative coins, companies wrapping their products in bicentennial branding and a broad sense of celebration.
The new poll suggests what has changed. "A lot of people feel the American social contract, the informal sense of America working for everybody, is not working," said Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.” [1]
1. U.S. News: Poll Finds America In Dark Mood at 250 --- Faith in democracy and capitalism softens in responses to a WSJ survey. Zitner, Aaron. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 July 2026: A4.
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