Outside view: Why do Americans think their neighbors are ‘bad’ people?

By Dallas Morning News Editorial

We Americans are a proud bunch. We are a nation founded on the principles of freedom and the rule of law, and our commitment to these values has propelled human flourishing to new heights and made us the leader of the free world. But in recent years, as our politics and media have become more toxic, we have become more cynical.

Now our cynicism is making us stand out in a bad way.

A recent Pew Research Center survey of residents in 25 countries yielded disconcerting results about Americans. Those results estimate that a majority of U.S. adults think their fellow citizens are bad or unethical people.

According to the survey, 53% of U.S. adults rated the morality of their fellow countrymen as “somewhat bad” or “very bad.” Yikes. We were the only country where a majority of citizens had such a bleak view of their fellow citizens. Most residents in the other 24 nations think of their fellow countrymen as good, according to the survey.

Some of those majorities were tenuous, such as in Turkey and Brazil, but they still beat us.

Let’s put the case to rest that Canada should be the 51st U.S. state. Our neighbors to the north have an overwhelmingly kind opinion of their fellow citizens: 92% of survey respondents think their countrymen have good morals.

As expected, there is a partisan bias. About 60% of U.S. adults who lean to the left said fellow Americans are bad, compared to 46% of American adults who lean right.

Democrats are currently out of power, so it makes sense that their views are more pessimistic. But the villainization of people based on their party is not something we should accept.

The latest Pew survey recalls the results of a 2023 poll by NORC at the University of Chicago and the nonprofit Starts With Us. That poll found that an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats – about 90% of each party – agreed that values such as government accountability and respect across differences are very important. Yet most Americans surveyed didn’t think those values were important to members of the opposing party.

Once upon a time, we could disagree with our neighbors and still view them as people worthy of kindness and respect. We could still believe they were good people with whom we simply diverged on policy or priorities. But our politics have become so nasty and tribalistic that those who oppose us ideologically are enemies or at the very least fellow citizens we shouldn’t trust.

Those of us who are worried about the morality of our fellow citizens won’t restore this nation’s better angels by holding on to our cynicism. We have to trust that people from the other party generally share with us basic human concerns about supporting a family, feeling safe and having a decent home and a fulfilling job, even if we conclude that their policy preferences are misguided or unhelpful.

If we can start by appreciating our shared humanity, maybe we’ll again be the kind of nation where we can disagree while assuming the best of our neighbors.