Nearly Half of Americans Don’t Even Know What America 250 Celebrates, Poll Finds

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Nearly half of those polled said they don’t know what America 250 actually celebrates, according to a startling new survey.

The bewildering poll from the Cato Institute was released just two days before the country’s semiquincentennial — or the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place July 4th, 1776.

The poll of 2,253 Americans found 46% didn’t know the meaning behind America 250, while 53% did.

The ignorance was even more stark when it came to Gen Z, 61% of whom couldn’t answer the question of what America’s 250th anniversary recognizes.

Just 39% of Gen Zers could answer the question correctly, the Cato Institute found.

The poll found 3% thought the anniversary represented the pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock; 5% of those asked thought America’s 250th anniversary commemorated the country’s first presidential election; 6% thought it marked victory in the Revolutionary War; and 8% said it was the ratification of the Constitution, which wasn’t completed by all states until 1790.

But a lack of civic knowledge didn’t dampen the American pride of those surveyed: 86% said they were grateful to be Americans, and 79% called themselves proud, while 74% said they felt the American Dream was available to them.

The poll came on the heels of a Marist University poll earlier this week, which found Republicans were far more likely to identify themselves as proud to be Americans.

In the survey, released Wednesday, 93% of Republicans said they were proud, while just 45% of Democrats identified themselves as “very proud” or “proud,” and 61% of Independents said they were proud.

July 4th celebrations are expected to include a massive rally in Washington, D.C., where President Donald Trump pledged to “make a really long speech” despite a high temperature of 107 degrees.

“This week, we look back on 250 years of glorious freedom, and we took so much time and so much effort, and by the way, on July 4, it’s going to be approximately 107° out. I’m going to go, and I’m going to make a really long speech,” Trump said Wednesday during a speech at the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

“Just to show that I can do anything.”

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