Democrats spent the summer of 2020 burning American flags in the streets.
Now a new NBC News poll proves they never stopped.
And JD Vance just made Jessica Tarlov defend the indefensible on live television.
Tarlov Tried to Make It About Politics
Jessica Tarlov had her excuse ready before Vance even sat down.
"Some of it is obviously partisan," she told the panel, arguing that pride in America naturally drops "when your party's out of power."
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Vance didn't let it stand.
"I don't think that's right," he said. "Why does that need to be true? That if your party's out of power, you should have less pride in your country?"
He had the receipts.
Vance pointed out that Republicans never pulled this trick – not under Obama, not under Biden.
"I guarantee that when Barack Obama was president or Joe Biden was pretending to be president, that you had Republicans who still said they're proud of America, they're proud of our military, they're proud of the great people of our country," he said.
He's right.
Gallup's data shows Republicans held 68% or higher extreme pride every single year of Obama's presidency.
Not a dip.
Not a wobble.
Democrats went from 87% pride in 2001 down to 29% today.
That's not a mood swing.
That's a collapse.
The Numbers Democrats Don't Want You to See
The NBC News poll released Sunday is a gut punch hiding in plain sight.
A year ago, 67% of Americans said they were proud of their country.
That number has cratered to 56%.
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Democrats own every point of that drop.
The age breakdown tells the rest of the story.
Americans 65 and older are holding the line – about three-quarters still say they're proud.
Young adults are a different country entirely: just 36% of those between 18 and 34 feel proud of America, a generation fed a steady diet of critical race theory and campus radicalism.
Vance connected the dots on live television.
"What seems to me so bizarre about this is that we've allowed a culture to develop where people feel like the country is the country's politics," he said.
Then he went further.
"I think that's actually connected to the violent rhetoric where if you disagree with somebody, you can justify killing them," he added.
Not an overstatement.
Antifa riots.
Political targeting.
A culture that trained an entire generation to see America as the villain.
Vance saw all of it in one poll number.
The Voters Democrats Need Are Already Noticing
The same NBC survey buried the finding Democrats can't spin away.
Overall voters said Democrats are too focused on opposing Trump – by six points.
Among swing voters – the exact people Democrats need to win anything – that margin exploded to 23 points.
The party built around hating Trump isn't just failing on patriotism.
They're bleeding the persuadable middle because ordinary voters can see what Tarlov tried to explain away Tuesday.
Vance ended with something simple.
"I wish Democrats, all of them, were proud of our country,” he said. “We should be proud of our country."
They won't listen.
In 2001, Republicans and Democrats were nearly equal – 90% and 87% proud respectively.
A quarter century later, Republicans are at 90% and Democrats are at 29%.
One party didn't change.
The left made anti-Americanism a core identity, taught it in every institution they controlled, and now they're staring at the bill.
Tarlov called it partisanship.
The poll called it a 61-point gap.
Vance called it what it is – a political party that decided hating America was easier than loving it.
Sources:
- Matt Margolis, "JD Vance Just Gave Jessica Tarlov a Patriotism Lesson She Won't Forget," PJ Media, June 16, 2026.
- "Patriotism Drops Off Among Democrats Ahead of America's 250th Birthday," The Daily Wire, June 14, 2026.
- "Democrats Less Proud of the Country Than Republicans," National Review, June 16, 2026.
- Jeffrey M. Jones, "American Pride Hits New Low; Few Proud of Political System," Gallup, July 2, 2019.
- "Democrats Are Stunningly Un-Patriotic," AMAC, March 20, 2026.
