Americans say the people are the best part of the U.S.

In a CBS News/YouGov poll of 2,519 adults conducted June 17-19, Americans said “the people” are the best part of the United States. As the nation heads toward its 250th birthday, most said the country has succeeded in achieving its founding ideals at least a fair amount, if not a great deal, and most also said the United States is strengthened by its many different ideas and cultures.

The survey, which carried a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 points, put the country’s land and resources, economic system and system of government behind its people as the next most admired features. When respondents were asked about America’s greatest invention, many pointed not to the light bulb or the internet, but to the ideas in the founding itself, including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Almost half of Americans said America’s best days are in the past, and just half were even somewhat confident that the American Dream is attainable today. Most said only a few people at the top have a real chance to get ahead. Those who said the country has done a great deal to achieve its founding ideals were the most optimistic about the future and were more likely to say democracy is secure. Those who saw opportunity as limited to a small elite were more likely to think democracy is under threat.

Most Americans said they generally get along with one another and that politics is what drives them apart. Many named political division, even more than economics, as the biggest challenge over the next half century. Freedom 250, a White House-connected public-private partnership, and America250, the congressional commission created a decade ago to plan nonpartisan celebrations nationwide, organize competing visions of how to mark the milestone.