EXCLUSIVE — Conservative advocacy group the Advancing American Freedom Foundation published its “Independence Index” on Thursday, assessing the health of the U.S. “national character” ahead of the 249th anniversary of the nation’s independence, depicting a country facing a cultural crisis.
AAFF, founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, evaluated the country’s cultural health using three recognizable metrics: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” portraying severe challenges in all three measurements.
AAFF’s general counsel, Marc Wheat, told the Washington Examiner, “The America we know cannot endure without a moral and spiritual order that sustains it. A civilization is not maintained by its politics, but by its people.”
According to the report, the challenges faced by the United States are critical. Following Alexis de Tocqueville’s footsteps, AAFF believes that American self-governance and liberty depend on a “distinctive American culture, discipline, and virtue.” The foundation argues that losing these keys to American success threatens the country’s future.
Life
The report begins with an analysis of how American culture protects and promotes the value of life. AAFF highlights the American fertility rate, which is currently 1.79 children per woman and below the replacement rate of 2.1. The index also notes that the number of abortions is increasing, with over 1 million performed in 2024.
Beyond a decrease in births, the AAFF’s paper also discusses the significant growth of depression and anxiety rates in recent years. In 2024, 21.4% of people reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. The report identifies isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, economic strain, and improper use of social media as key drivers of this increase.
According to the Independence Index, these factors have contributed to a rise in deaths of despair. Fatal overdoses have increased from 8.9 deaths per 100,000 population in 2003 to 32.6 in 2022. Meanwhile, the suicide rate has also increased from 10.8 deaths per 100,000 population in 2003 to 14.2 in 2022.
The AAFF report relates these increased deaths of despair to the growth in drug and alcohol use, with 21% of people who killed themselves having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.1% or more. In 2020, 13.5% of people used drugs in the month before being surveyed, a 3.8% increase from the previous year.
Liberty
The Independence Index also highlights liberty as a crucial pillar of U.S. culture. The paper describes American liberty as holding “the individual as a unique being to be valued, but does not hold the individual as existing independent of others.”
The report sees American liberty as being under threat. Government overregulation is a significant concern of the authors, with 18.5 agency rules created for each law passed by Congress in 2024. However, the paper also highlights the Trump-Vance administration’s order that for every new proposed regulation, 10 regulations should be repealed.
The index finds that educational liberty is limited. Only 41.1% of parents want to send their children to public schools, while 80% do so. The report reasons that this lack of school choice has contributed to a decline in reading and math scores.
Gun ownership has also decreased, from 45% of people owning guns in 1980 to 32% in 2016. According to AAFF, “gun ownership is a fundamental aspect of American identity and individual liberty.” In the authors’ view, this decline in gun ownership reflects a decline in liberty rooted in civic responsibility.
Pursuit of Happiness
The index describes the pursuit of happiness as “one of the most eloquent phrases in human history.” The report lists poverty, welfare dependency, and a decline in marriage and religious attendance as the factors opposing this pursuit.
The paper criticizes the social spending programs implemented since the 1960s, describing them as redistributive policies that harmed the U.S. economy. It suggests that welfare programs, meant to reinforce the middle class and create a dynamic economy, harmed the people they were intended to serve.
The transfer of money from productive spenders to impoverished households created dependency and harmed the American work ethic. In addition, the loss of capital for productive spenders limited growth. The report cites welfare reform in the 1990s as the reason for that decade’s prosperity.
RECORD-HIGH 72.2 MILLION PEOPLE EXPECTED TO TRAVEL WITHIN COUNTRY FOR JULY 4
The report concludes by discussing the decline in marriage and religious attendance. The authors give these declines as the most fundamental threat to U.S. culture and liberty, with married men and women and regular attendees of religious services happier and more productive than their peers.
The paper quotes George Washington’s Farewell Address: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”