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Four times as many Republican voters than Democratic voters believe that the United States of America "stands above all other countries in the world," according to data released Monday by the Pew Research Center.
The data was part of a report from the Pew Research Center about political values and polarization that was released in full on Tuesday. It was derived from a survey conducted online among 9,895 American adults between September 3 and 15.
The survey asked respondents which of the following statements aligned most closely to their personal views: "U.S. stands above all other countries in the world"; "U.S. is one of greatest countries, along with others" or "Other countries are better than the U.S."
Those who said they were Republican or tended to lean Republican appeared to be far more optimistic about American prestige than their Democratic counterparts. Among self-identified Republicans and GOP leaning independents, 40 percent said that the U.S. "stands above all other" nations, while another 51 percent agreed that it is one of the best countries in the world. The remaining nine percent said other countries were better than the U.S.
In contrast, 31 percent of those who identified as Democrats or Democrat-leaning responded that other countries were better than America. However, a majority—58 percent—agreed with the majority of Republican respondents that the U.S. was one of the world's great nations. Only 10 percent said that the U.S. was indisputably the greatest country in the world.
The survey also found that other factors besides party affiliation correlated with individuals' views on the United States.
For example, of the three racial groups recorded in the survey (white, black and Hispanic), white Americans were the most likely to respond that the U.S. is better than all other countries. Twenty-eight percent of them agreed with that statement, compared to 18 percent of Hispanics and 17 percent of blacks. Still, the majority of respondents from each of these groups thought that the U.S. was "one of the world's greatest countries, along with others."
Age and levels of education also appeared to correspond with positive or negative views of the U.S. The older a respondent was, the more likely they were to say that the U.S. "stands above all" other countries. Further, higher educational attainment inversely correlated with pro-U.S. stances. Those who did not finish high school were the educational demographic most likely to respond that the U.S. is the greatest country (30 percent) while those with postgraduate degrees were the least (16 percent).
The idea that the U.S. "stands above all other nations" is similar to the idea of
American exceptionalism, the idea that America is special compared to all other countries. In 2016, Foreign Policy dubbed now-President Donald Trump's "America First" platform "the twilight of American exceptionalism" in an article that also quoted then-President Barack Obama's take on the idea.
"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism," the 44th president said at a press conference in 2009.
