I was struck by the results of a CNN poll showing most Americans believe the Founding Fathers would be disappointed by the way the United States has turned out 232 years later.

The survey in June by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. found that 69 percent of adult Americans said the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed by the way the nation has turned out overall. A mere 29 percent said the Founding Fathers would be pleased.

It seems to me these results are based on an unrealistic conception of who these men were. What passes for our civics education in this country tends to paint them in mythological terms so that we revere them and therefore the nation they founded.

Somehow, people believe that our country’s greatness depends on the demi-godhood of its founders. So in an era where America’s behavior since 2000 suffers by comparison with the ideal image we’ve been fed about the Founding Fathers it’s not surprising a majority of Americans imagine George Washington and company are looking down from Mount Olympus with nothing but frowns on their faces.

FOUNDING FATHERS NOT SO SACRED Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington weren’t as godlike as most Americans imagine. Their politics were as rough-and-tumble as today’s — maybe moreso.

I disagree.

These men were realists, and often as ruthless as any politician you could scrape up from the muck of today’s politics.

The early political parties vehemently disagreed about the very meaning of the Revolution and they attacked each other relentlessly about it because they were conscious that they were setting the precedents that would chart the course of the infant nation the likes of which the Earth had never seen before.

The Republicans (later known as today’s Democrats) saw the Revolution as a war of liberation, and held the Declaration of Independence as their most sacred founding document. The now-departed Federalists viewed the Revolution as only the first of many steps in building a uniquely American nation; they revered the Constitution the most.

WHO WERE THESE GUYS, ANYWAY? Joseph Ellis’ awesome book, “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation,” uses the true stories of America’s founders to connect our modern-day challenges with the struggles of a newborn nation.

The wonderful book, “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation,” does a splendid job of recounting how unseemly our Founding Fathers behaved. They engaged in negative campaigning, character assassination, curtailment of civil rights and other ungentlemanly behavior to further their political ends.

Of them all, only George Washington emerges as the closest to superhuman. But he had his faults, too (turned a blind eye to the political machinations under his watch, owned slaves, etc.).

My point is that these men would look at the things we’re not so proud of today — our nasty politics, economic opportunism, warmongering — and likely conclude this is pretty standard American behavior that has survived from their own era. Then they’d contrast that with what the nation has accomplished in nearly two and a half centuries. They may not agree that all America’s accomplishments are great but they couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that the fragile foundation they laid so long ago became so firm that the nation has been able to endure wars, disasters, cynicism, greed, economic catastrophe, slavery, racism, and occasional pure evil.