I've always maintained that anecdotal evidence had some value.

I'm an American overseas and meet people from all over. In my own absurdly small and skewed sample, I get the same results as yours. What's worse--I feel the same way. That the country I have been proud of, that I grew up in, the one with the noble beliefs--is no more.

I have spent a fair number of years in Latin America, and still maintain close contacts there. Leftists in the region have gained immense, if bitter, prestige, for having foretold the collapse of the United States' example decades ago. I have had to apologize to my friends among them for having maintained that the US right wing was at least honorable, and would never simply discard the country's founding traditions.
More: I know many of those same people wept real tears when the United States began to abandon its ideals in the wholesale fashion it has over the last few years. With all the fault they found, they still regarded the US as the beacon of a practical nation that applied humanities' ideals more often than not, and was successful because of it.