Sorry, America Isn’t Destined To Be More Liberal

[Valin]

The Federalist:

Confusing culture and politics

David Harsanyi

1/21/14

 

 

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, left-wing activist Steve Rosenthal sounds a lot like other wishful thinkers arriving at a comfortable partisan conclusion. America, he writes, is only a few years from a full-blown progressive electorate. “A close examination of U.S. attitudes in the past decade-plus,” Rosenthal contends, “reveals that the United States is steadily becoming more progressive.” (Rosenthal makes no distinction between “progressive” and “liberal” so I won’t either.)

 

It seems to be widely accepted by the media that demographics, GOP ineptitude and internal division, and a generational shift on social issues places the American voter on an enduring leftward course. Is this inevitable? Well, about as inevitable as Karl Rove’s durable Republican majority.

 

You don’t have to be stickler for academic rigor to appreciate that an 825-word column with a few links to some Gallup polls is not really a “close examination” of anything. But you don’t have to be a historian to understand that the electorate, while hardly immune to terrible ideas, is, in the end, stubbornly moderate with little use for philosophical consistency. Which is to say, no one knows what the future will look like.

 

Voters not only have conflicting ideological views, they change their minds on those issues all the time — and oftentimes for no good reason at all. We are irrational. We are mercurial. We’re irresponsible.......(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

How to Win a Culture War

 

Young Americans are more pro-drug, pro-gay—and pro-life.

 

By Jack Hunter • January 7, 2014

For as long social conservatives have been a force within the Republican Party, moderates and liberals have insisted that their presence hurts the GOP. There is certainly evidence Americans are becoming more socially liberal on some issues.

 

In May, a Gallup headline read, “Same-Sex Marriage Support Solidifies Above 50% in U.S.: Support has been 50% or above in three separate readings in last year.” In October, the same firm announced, “For First Time, Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana: Support surged 10 percentage points in past year, to 58%.” Medical-marijuana initiatives have been widely successful, and now recreational marijuana has become legal in places like Washington and Colorado. More states may soon follow.

 

A poll conducted in April by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that older Americans and white evangelical Protestants were the two groups most opposed to same-sex marriage and relaxing marijuana laws. But attitudes are changing even among Christians, as a Religion News Service interview with PRRI Research Director Daniel Cox revealed: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-to-win-a-culture-war/

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

Young Americans are more pro-drug, pro-gayand pro-life.

Talk to me in....(?)ten years. One of the wonderful things about federalism is we can see how policies work out. This is (one of) the problem with Roe v Wade, it was an attempt to stop the debate.