New Poll Shows Most Americans Admire America's Founding, But Reject Its Ideas

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Feb 04, 2026, 07:30 ET

New polling released by Discovery Institute in time for Presidents Day reveals that most Americans still admire the American Founding.

SEATTLE, Feb. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- "The death of American patriotism appears to have been greatly exaggerated," says political scientist Dr. John West, author of the new report How Americans View the American Founding. "Despite a torrent of negativity in recent years about America's Founders, most Americans still revere them."

However, fewer than 4 in 10 agree with America's Founders that our rights come from God, and less than half can identify the Declaration of Independence as the source of the words "all men are created equal."

"Many Americans today reject the Founders' beliefs when it comes to limited government, representative government, and our rights coming from God," West added. "We have a lot of work to do if we want our fellow Americans to appreciate some of the most important ideals of the American Founding."

How Americans View the American Founding was just released by Discovery Institute for America's 250^th birthday celebration this year, the report presents data from two new national surveys of 2,500 American adults (margin of error +/- 2 percent).

John West is Vice President of Discovery Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan research and education organization headquartered in Seattle. In addition to authoring the new report, West has a book coming out in March titled Endowed by Our Creator that explores the truth and continuing relevance of the Declaration of Independence for today.

Findings from the Discovery Institute report include:

64% of Americans believe that "the original Constitution and Bill of Rights should be admired because they advanced human freedom and equality more than anything before them."
Only 22% believe that "because America's Founders protected slavery, America is forever tainted by racism."
Most Americans continue to revere America's major Founding Fathers: 76% admire George Washington, 78% admire Benjamin Franklin, and 72% admire Thomas Jefferson.
Only 38% agree with the Founders that our rights come from God. Most now believe our rights come from government (32%), the majority (7%), social traditions (7%), biological evolution (4%), or the elites (1%).
69% believe that the purpose of government includes guaranteeing "education, medical care, and an adequate income for everyone," whereas only 31% believe the purpose of government should be limited to "guarantee[ing] that all persons have basic freedoms."
75% reject the Founders' idea that most public policy decisions should be made by elected officials who are accountable to the people. Instead, they think that "in our increasingly scientific and technological society, it is important to rely more on scientists and experts rather [than] elected officials to decide public policy."
Only 45% can identify the source of "all men are created equal" as The Declaration of Independence. That figure goes down the younger people become.
At the same time, supermajorities of Americans think key ideas of The Declaration of Independence are true.

The full report can be downloaded for free at https://EndowedByOurCreator.com/survey.

SOURCE Discovery Institute