Millennials are placing little importance on patriotism, religion and having children, according to a new poll.
The Wall Street Journal and NBC News discovered the traditional values that once held this country together, are now eroding.
“There’s an emerging America where issues like children, religion and patriotism are far less important,” Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt, told WSJ.
The most significant decline was in the area of having children; with only 43 percent of the younger generation saying it was very important. That number was down by 16 percent from 1998.
While 80 percent of people over that age of 55 placed high importance on patriotism, only 42 percent of the younger group claimed to hold any strong patriotic feelings.
A belief in God fared far worse.
Only a third of millennials believed that religion held any importance, while two-thirds of the older group said a “belief in God” was very important.
Perhaps most shocking were results of a YouGov poll released late last month that found 27 percent of millennials say they have no close friends and a whopping 22 percent claiming they have NO friends at all.
Brian Resnick of Vox wrote, “If this generation is truly lonelier, that’s concerning for a number of reasons: Research shows that loneliness tends to increase as we get older. What will happen to millennials, who are already reporting high levels of loneliness, when they reach old age?”
The New Yorker claims the downward spiral of patriotism and traditional values among the young generation should be of great concern to the Republican Party.
“This is a big problem for the GOP,” wrote Eric Levitz for the New Yorker.
