July 4, 2015: All is Not Well with America

Today is the 239th anniversary of the first 4th of July in 1776.

On that day, the Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson, thereby marking the formation of a new sovereign nation independent from Great Britain, called the United States of America. (See “Remembering that first 4th of July“)

239 years after so many of our Founders had sacrificed their lives and property in the American Revolution of Independence, all is not well with the United States of America as seen in the following two indicators.

1. More and more Americans, especially the young, are considering leaving the U.S.

Although only 0.001% of Americans renounced their U.S. citizenship in 2014, a recent poll finds that Americans increasingly are considering leaving the U.S. for foreign shores.

A recent online poll of more than 2,000 adults by TransferWise, a peer-to-peer money transfer service based in the UK, found that 35% of American-born residents and emigrants would consider leaving the United States to live in another country. The Millennials (those aged 18 to 34) are even more disposed to leave America: More than half or 55% of millennials said that they would consider leaving the U.S. for foreign shores. Among them, 43% of men and 38% of women said that a higher salary would be a factor in their relocation decision. (Source: CNBC)

2. Many Americans don’t know the meaning of July 4th

Paul Joseph Watson of InfoWars points out that in 2011, a Maris poll found that:

Only 58% of Americans knew that the United States declared its independence in 1776.
About ¼ of Americans had no idea from whom America declared its independence.
14% of U.S. teens thought that the U.S. declared independence from France, while another 5% thought it was Canada.

4 years later, Americans are no less frighteningly ignorant. In another of his devastating man-on-the-street interviews, Mark Dice found that many beachgoers in San Diego are clueless about the Fourth of July:

This man doesn’t know it was the American colonies that broke away from England.
This woman thinks Independence Day refers to the end of the Civil War when “we” won and “overtook the south.
This woman thinks Abraham Lincoln had signed the Declaration of Independence in 1964 or 1984.
This man doesn’t know which country we declared independence from; his female partner thinks Independence Day marks our independence “from California.”
This woman has no idea what we’re celebrating our independence from, then guessed that it was from “those countries.”
This middle-aged woman can’t name even one of our Founding Fathers.
This man, with 2 kids, also has no idea which country “we broke away from” when we declared our independence in 1776.