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This Election Has Everyone Down On America

by Joseph D. Lyons

This election has not exactly raised anybody's spirits. If the revelations upon leaked tape upon nasty insult have gotten you down on the country, you're not the only one. In fact, there are lots of other people who, thanks to the election, feel less proud of America. That's not hard to believe, given the tenor the campaigns, not to mention one candidate's Twitter and penchant for insulting people during this insanely long rat race to the White House. And thanks to this poll, you can see just how much of the country feels exactly like you do.

Way more than half — 62 percent — of Americans say that they are "less proud of America as a result of the 2016 presidential contest." That's compared with just seven percent who are more proud. Evidently the prospect of electing a woman president does not instill pride in the country — or it doesn't over overwhelm the effect that Donald Trump's outrageous remarks have had on the campaign. And then of course it's only fair to mention Clinton's number of negative ads.

NBC News reported the results of the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll and compared it to past years. Consider 2012, when President Obama was in the race with Mitt Romney. At the time things may have seemed bad, but now almost anyone I know longs for comments such as "binder full of women." That go around, 34 percent said they were more proud of the country, with just 12 percent less proud. And that was a pretty ugly campaign — definitely not the hope and change of 2008.

Polls since August have been showing that these are the most unpopular candidates ever. That would definitely help explain it, but interestingly, it's the Clinton supporters who are more down on things. That would make you think it's Trump outweighing the potential historic moment of her election. Some 74 percent of Clinton voters say that the presidential election has made them less proud of America. That's compared with just 49 percent for Trump. And more of his supporters are more proud too — although the difference is small, just 9 percent to 6 percent for Clinton voters.

Even if Trump supporters are not down on the country as a whole as much, they still had a bit to complain about in the poll. The media also took a beating. Just 29 percent of respondents said the press had done a good job and 66 percent said the press had tried to alter the outcome. Some 44 percent of respondents said the media had tried to tilt things in Clinton's favor. Only nine percent said the same thing about Trump and the news media.

None of this is good for American democracy, but hopefully your faith and pride — and that of many others — in this country will be restored on Election Day.