The last three years have reshaped the feelings and outlook for our country among its citizens. Today, America’s liberals and conservatives appear to live in two different realities. 

Back in 2022, we asked Americans across political divides and immigration backgrounds about their feelings for our country. Being an immigrant myself and living my own American Dream, I wanted to understand what the United States meant to us and how we felt about its direction. When I reviewed the results, I saw it as a celebration of what is fundamentally core to our American experience: freedom, democracy, opportunity, pride, unity, and diversity. 

Since then, many events have shaped – or some might say shaken – our society, so I wanted to know how our views of Lady Liberty and the land she is watching over have changed. I expected to see an evolution in the themes that have defined the United States in our eyes, but I didn’t expect to see such a drastic difference in the outlook on our country between those of us who consider themselves liberal and those who lean conservative.

To explore just how our perceptions have shifted, we return to simple but powerful questions— the same ones we asked three years ago… 

What is the one word or expression that comes to mind when you hear someone say the United States of America? 

As was the case in July of 2022, when we repeated our experiment in April of 2025, some of the same familiar themes emerged. What was striking in the data was the drastic change between the two surveys and how far liberal- and conservative-leaning respondents diverged in their views.  

In 2022, liberals and conservatives shared a surprising degree of agreement—about 74%—on six key themes that reflect what America stands for. By 2025, that shared perspective has fractured: support among liberals dropped to 47%, while conservatives continue to uphold those themes at a much higher rate, at 71%. What we are seeing is that the liberal respondents have dramatically reduced their belief in America as standing for democracy (-53% of support strength), opportunity (-32%) and liberty (36%). While conservative respondents also feel less convinced about these ideas today, they are much more positive than their liberal counterparts: today, they feel freer and about as much at home here in America as they did in 2022.  

If America was a product and you were its customer, how would you rate it? 

Unsurprisingly, Americans today see their country’s performance very differently than they did in 2022. In our survey, we asked our respondents to rate the United States as if it was a product on a scale from 9 (highest) to 1 (lowest). 

In 2022, the country received an average grade of 6.26 – about one point above average grade. Three years ago, both liberal and conservative respondents’ ratings were close to that average, with conservatives slightly higher at 6.54 and liberals at 5.84. Since then, however, the ratings have diverged between the two groups.  

I see the future of the United States as… 

Perhaps the starkest difference between the conservatives and liberals comes in their view of the future. In 2022, both groups were leaning toward seeing the future as somewhere bright – the two groups scoring between 2.56 and 2.771.  

This year, their future has diverged. Conservatives’ view of America’s future has improved almost as dramatically (by half a point) as liberal’s future expectations dropped (by almost a full point).

A nation divided, again… 

My original curious question that started our search for the meaning of America was to understand the American dream and if it was alive and well. Does it still mean to new immigrants today what it meant to generations after generations who immigrated to this land to find freedom, opportunity, and safety? I like to believe that while at any point of time in history we see things that divide us, there are many more that connect us… the chief among them being the American dream.  

Throughout our history, the nation has endured periods that challenged that premise. The untenable oppression of racism and slavery almost tore this country apart in the Civil War. The aftermath of the Great Depression threw this land to the precipice of isolationism as the first version of America First political movement brewed. The anti-communist witch hunt of the 50s was followed by the search for of this nation’s soul after a series of assassinations of civil right leaders in the 60s and while we grappled with the Vietnam war.  

My generation, and those that followed, have largely been spared the kind of national turmoil that defined earlier eras. The fall of the Iron Curtain opened two worlds to each other. The aftermath of 9/11 has brought this nation tightly together for a moment. Today, however, we see two different Americas. Some of us look to its future with pride and others with fear. The majority of one group sees the American dream as thriving, while to most in the other group it is already gone. 

Will the wedge between us continue to widen, pushing us into an uncharted future from which we may not return? Or will history repeat itself, and will this nation come together as it has done again and again in the past? I don’t know.  But what the data makes clear is this: we are living through a turning point, writing a new chapter in America’s story. I hope it’s one we’ll be proud to tell. 

Written by GroupSolver CEO, Rasto Ivanic