Men of a certain age have already imagined what is happening in Ukraine, but here in the United States. Those of us who were boys in the Reagan era imbibed Red Dawn and the miniseries Amerika and imagined the Russians trying to conquer the U.S.
Americans are relatively patriotic, especially compared with Western Europe. So it’s no surprise when the pollsters at Quinnipiac University report their latest finding: “When confronted with a terrible hypothetical that would put them in the shoes of the Ukrainians, Americans say they would stand and fight rather than seek safety in another country.”
Drill into the data, though, and there’s an exception here: Most Democrats would not stay and fight.
Asked “If you were in the same position as Ukrainians are now, do you think that you would stay and fight or leave the country?” 68% of Republicans said stay and fight, as did 57% of independents. Only 40% of Democrats said they would take up arms to defend the country from an invading force.
This isn’t explained by race. Fully 61% of Hispanics said they would stay and fight, the highest of any racial group. Among black respondents, 38% said stay and fight, which is statistically the same as the average Democrat (40%).
Some of the difference is by sex. Men are far more likely to stay and fight than are women. Still, that’s not nearly enough to explain the partisan gap, given that the average woman was just as likely (40%) as the average Democrat to stay and fight.
So there really is something in being a Democrat, whether white or black, man or woman, that makes you significantly less likely to say you’ll defend your country than your non-Democratic peers.
When I see these sad numbers, I think of some other recent data:
A clear majority, 55%, of young Democrats believe the U.S. is not in the top tier of good countries in the world. If that finding is true, it would help explain why Democrats are much less likely to be willing to defend America.
I believe it goes deeper. Democrats have seen a disproportionate drop in their desire to have children.
It’s a broad malaise. I think Democratic millennials and Zoomers don’t think Americans are good. They don’t think humans are good, for that matter. They especially don’t think the wealthiest 20% of the planet is good.
Is it any wonder? If your leading lights tell you the U.S. is inherently a white supremacist nation, if you think humans are melting the planet, if you believe that 46% of the electorate supports all of former President Donald Trump’s worst traits and the even worse traits that you imagine in him, then of course you wouldn’t spill any blood for America. Of course you wouldn’t want to have children and make more of us.
