Why are poor people in America so patriotic?

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The evidence is not hidden. Ninety percent of the wealth in the United States is held by .1 percent of households. Intergenerational class mobility has been stagnant for several decades. The racial wealth gap continues to persist. It is so extreme that economists and other experts predict that African-Americans as a group will have zero wealth by 2053. "Tax reform" has continued to divert money upward to the very rich and away from all other Americans. Political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page have shown that America's elected officials are almost wholly unresponsive to the political demands of the average American.

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Despite these facts, poor and working-class Americans are extremely patriotic and nationalistic -- much more so than any other group in the country.

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"Why would poor and working-class people be so patriotic? This country has failed them. Is this a form of false consciousness?"

What is a puzzle for you and me is actually not a puzzle for them at all. It is, in fact, the opposite. It is precisely because so many things have gone wrong for them that they get so much mileage out of being an American, which still happens to be a very prestigious national identity. One could argue that in a way it gives them a sense of identity like nothing else. They’re hanging on to it precisely because they have nothing else to hang on to.

Saying they are possessed by false consciousness is actually a condescending take. Because when you talk to these people they are quite knowledgeable about American history. They are quite knowledgeable about the American social contract.

They don’t have their history wrong. I think they’re being too harsh on themselves. They also differentiate between themselves and the government and say, “What happened to me is my responsibility.” In the end, they hang onto this idea. They feel motivated to continue and to do better the next morning. Many of them said that.

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