The New York Times charts the inexorable liberalization of America on social issues. But there’s a caveat!
The article’s thrust is that gun control and abortion are exceptions: “The second category of major issues is different. In it, both sides in the debate are often able to make a rights-based argument. … That’s why the second set of issues defies the confident predictions that come with the first.”
The number of Americans calling for more gun control has trended down to under fifty percent, but to cast that abortion chart as a similar exception seems a stretch: Americans who are OK with it has gone up from 75% to 80% in the last few decades.
I’m not sure I believe it (most polls put it Americans about net 55/40 OK with abortion). But either way, the imposition of brutal burdens on pregnant women has become a legislative candle in the dark for conservatism. It’s hard not to think last week is only the beginning of their misery.
Cheer up, guys: you’ll still have your guns!
Missing from the Times’ roundup is a climate change chart.
CONCLUSION: Your annoying uncle who proudly declares “social liberal, fiscal conservative” in his smug, nasal voice is winning.