Last week, PRRI released our flagship American Values Survey. In this unprecedented political moment, we find party polarization remains a pernicious and growing aspect of American politics.
That Republicans and Democrats remain polarized in their views on a range of public policies, their political priorities and the direction of the country is hardly newsworthy. It is notable, however, that independents are far closer to Democrats in their views of many Trump administration policies than they are to Republicans. This explains in large part why President Trump’s job performance remains under water.
Yet for me, the most important takeaway from this year’s AVS is that most Americans, including in some cases majorities of Republicans, largely reject the worldview espoused by MAGA leaders.
Here are five examples that demonstrate how out of touch those views are with most Americans.
“Most Americans, including in some cases majorities of Republicans, largely reject the worldview espoused by MAGA leaders.”
Strong majorities of Americans stand for academic freedom and believe the government is overreaching in its handling of higher education.
In 2021, when Vice President JD Vance was running for Senate, he declared before the National Conservative Conference that conservatives “have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country” to effect ideological change. Higher education has long been a punching bag for many conservative leaders; Vance‘s speech harkened back to Richard Nixon’s famous view, revealed in secret tapes, that “professors are the enemy.”
Today, the Trump administration is using the full weight of the federal government to wage a large-scale assault on higher education in its attempt to thrust conservative reforms upon the nation’s colleges and universities. In its Compact for Academic Excellence, the Trump administration calls for universities to abandon diversity initiatives and restrict actions and speech from university staff that relate to “societal and political events” in exchange for federal funds.
Major universities that were first approached to participate in the compact, including MIT, Brown and USC, have rejected the offer, given that it would require them to abandon the foundational principles of free inquiry that undergird the nation’s system of higher learning. It turns out that most Americans share this view, too.
The AVS finds that 70% of Americans, including 58% of Republicans, disagree that “the federal government should have the authority to control student admissions, faculty hiring and curriculum at U.S. colleges and universities to ensure they do not teach inappropriate material.”
Most Americans agree that empathy is a moral value that is a foundation of a healthy society, rather than a dangerous emotion that undermines society.
The ire of MAGA leaders does not rest solely with the nation’s colleges and universities — they are taking aim at the concept of empathy, too. This line of attack first gained wider notice in the writings of Joe Rigney, a Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrew’s College — the college founded by self-identified Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson. Rigney argues that empathy is a Satanic, manipulative tool used by the progressive left to promote “sinful” causes, such as LGBTQ rights, racial diversity or more open immigration policies.
The “sin” of empathy has deeply misogynistic elements, too, as proponents of this ideology view women as the weaker sex who are particularly susceptible to its appeal. Or as Allie Beth Stuckey, the popular evangelical podcaster and author of Toxic Empathy told her listeners, liberals will “use emotional, compassionate, kind-sounding language in order to get a woman to think, well, in order to be a good person, in order to be kind, in order to even love my neighbor, then I have to be pro-open borders. I have to be pro-LGBTQ. I have to be pro-choice.”
This line of thinking extends beyond conservative religious leaders, as Elon Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan earlier this year that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
Yet this attack on empathy fails to resonate with most Americans.
8 in 10 Americans are more likely to agree that “empathy is a moral value that is the foundation of a healthy society,” compared with just 16% who agree that “empathy is a dangerous emotion that undermines our ability to set up a society that is guided by God’s truth.” Notably, just one in four Republicans classify empathy as a dangerous emotion, although they do so at significantly higher rates than independents (14%) and Democrats (8%).
Americans reject the notion that women’s gains have come at the expense of men.
Given its attacks on empathy, it is little surprise that the MAGA worldview decries what it sees as a society that is insufficiently masculine. Our 2025 AVS finds the American public remains somewhat ambivalent about masculinity, with 42% agreeing that society has become too soft and feminine. This idea, however, has become increasingly salient for Republicans.
Today, 67% of Republicans agree that society has become too soft and feminine, up sharply from 53% in 2011 when we first asked the question. Agreement jumps to 73% among Christian nationalist adherents.
This crisis of masculinity, according to such proponents, is rooted in America’s turn away from more traditional gender roles. Since the advent of the second wave women’s movement in the 1970s, social conservatives have long viewed feminism as a dangerous movement that rejects God’s preferred natural order. In today’s time, the manosphere adds fuel to these gendered-themed grievances in its promotion of a zero-sum mentality that lays the struggles faced by men today largely at the feet of women.
However, the AVS finds that most Americans (75%) reject the notion that the gains women have made in recent years have come at the expense of men. Just 21% of Americans agree with this statement, including 28% of Republicans, 21% of independents, and 12% of Democrats.
Fewer than one in five Americans endorse the “heritage” rhetoric espoused by many MAGA leaders, instead viewing America as a nation where all people should have equal rights and freedoms.
In a speech at the Claremont Institute last summer, Vice President Vance rejected the long-held view that American identity is best understood as a creedal principle — a commitment to the Founders’ ideal that all people should have access to equal rights: “I believe one of the most pressing problems for us to face as statesmen is to redefine the meaning of American citizenship in the 21st century.” America, he said, “is not just an idea, we’re a particular place with a particular people and a particular set of beliefs and way of life.”
And what do those shared beliefs entail, according to the MAGA worldview? According to Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, speaking at the National Conservatism Conference early last month, American identity is rooted in “the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores to baptize a new world in their ancient faith.” Like Vance, Schmitt rejected the idea that America is best understood as an idea, but instead is “a home, belonging to a people, bound together by a common past and a shared destiny.” This line of reasoning is on full display in the “Homeland Heritage” campaign on social media launched by the Department of Homeland Security this past summer.
Yet, when asked to choose whether America is best understood as a nation built around the idea that people have equal rights and freedoms, as opposed to being comprised of people with a shared heritage and homeland, just 19% of Americans chose the latter option, including only 27% of Republicans.
Most Americans remain deeply committed to a multi-faith democracy.
The MAGA worldview prefers a nation with fewer immigrants and more Christians. Yet, Americans largely remain committed to the vision of multi-faith America — a vision enshrined in the Constitution, which establishes the right for Americans to worship freely as they wish, while preventing a state-sponsored official religion and banning religious tests as a precursor to holding political office.
The AVS finds just 32% of Americans say that they would prefer a nation primarily made up of people who follow the Christian faith — although Republicans are more likely to agree with that sentiment.
If there is one thing that gives me hope in our survey’s findings, it is that Americans of all parties embrace the credal notions of American identity.
Roughly nine in 10 Americans say believing in individual freedoms, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and respecting American political institutions and laws, are essential traits to being truly American, as is accepting people of diverse racial and religious backgrounds — a view endorsed by 86% of Republicans, 89% of independents, and 96% of Democrats.
The same cannot be said for the MAGA worldview.
Melissa Deckman
Melissa Deckman serves as CEO of Public Religion Research Institute and is author of The Politics of Gen Z.
This column originally appeared on her Substack and is republished here with permission. Subscribe to her original columns there as well.
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