Jake Kimball, a freshman intelligence and national security major, believes that no matter what political issues divide the United States, citizens can still exercise their First Amendment right to free speech, and to him that is what makes America unique. “I am extremely proud to be an American,” Kimball said. Nick Fearby, a junior sport, arts and entertainment management major, agreed and added that despite internal political conflict and wars in the Middle East he is also proud to be an American.“Even though there are so many issues, this is still our country,” Fearby said.
While U.S. citizens are proud of the nation they live in, a negative trend in the global perspective of the United States is turning to more positive numbers due to the Obama administration’s foreign policy.In an April BBC World Service poll started in 2005, Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) called this the “Obama Effect,” or the positive trend in attitude toward the United States since President Barack Obama was elected. Since 2005, the United States has gained over 20 percentage points, the percentage of people who think the nation has made a positive impact on the world. The graph shows a negative trend from 2005 to 2007, but a gradual positive trend from 2007, when the United States ranked about 28 percent, to 2010, where the United States currently ranks third at 40 percent. The United States is behind the United Kingdom at 51 percent and the European Union at 52 percent.In the article, the BBC stated that “nearly 30,000 people in 28 countries were interviewed for the poll between November 2009 and February 2010.” Fifteen of these countries, excluding the United States, were polled every year since 2005, including Australia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.The end of the Bush years, along with the 2007 presidential campaigns of Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who took on the weight of the unpopular Iraq and Afghanistan wars, marked an increase in positive views. The article suggests that the wars in the Middle East, paired with the election of President Obama and his handling of the conflicts, led to the positive poll results.A 2008 BBC article on the same poll project stated, “Senior U.S. state department official Kurt Volker acknowledged perceptions had been negative in recent years, but said 2003 and 2004 had been an ‘anomaly’ because of the Iraq war.”In 2008, Kull speculated that the rise in approval was due to the 2008 election.“Hope that a new administration will move away from the foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world,” Kull said.In contrast to the international view of the United States, the American opinion of the Obama administration is down as of April 22; 42 percent of Americans disapprove and 50 percent approve of the administration, according to the daily Gallup poll.