In all seriousness it is a pretty impressive lead at this point:
"Americans trust President Barack Obama over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney on social issues, 52 percent to 36 percent, according to a new AP-GfK poll released Friday."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77724.html#ixzz1yeJjyAdV
By this I think we can say that most Americans prefer a more liberal position on social issues. evidently the GOP gambit about a War on Religious Liberty didn't hit the mark or come anywhere close.
I notice that Right wing hatchet men like Limbaugh and Hannity are running around claiming that Obama is in trouble with Blacks now because of gay marriage. This is false. True there were two opposing forces-African American support for the President and their opposition to gay marriage.
It stands to reason that one of those two facts would have to adjust some. The adjustment has been all on the opposition to gay marriage. Indeed since March there has been a stunning reversal with large numbers of African Americans now supporting gay marriage.
While the economy has problems beyond what the President can immediately fix all by himself but it's clear that on issues like gay rights, immigration, and drug legalization the country is closer to the President and his party.
Okay, so people agree with Obama about social issues, but not gay marriage or abortion, arguably the two social issues most hotly argued about today. I'm not sure if that really works the way people want it to. The hottest legislation being passed right now are probably the marraige rights and abortion/contraception/woman's rights legislation. Maybe most people agree with everything else Obama believes, but if at least a majority of people isn't in accordance with Obama about gay marriage and abortion/contraception, you arguably can't make this claim. About the same number of people agree with Obama on gay marriage as people who don't, and you can't explain away the fact that the majority of Americans are actually against abortion now.(http://www.gallup.com/poll/154838/pro-choice-americans-record-low.aspx) Since Obama has both pro gay marriage and pro-choice groups supporting him, he has no choice but to say he loves the LGTB community and wants his daughters to be able to have abortions. If the majority of Americans aren't saying the same thing, America doesn't mostly agree with Obama on social issues.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a large majority of Americans are in agreement with Obama about immigration, drug legalization, and even public schools (if you can call that a social issue). There was no mention, however, in the poll, of exactly which social issues people agree with Obama about. Except for gay marriage, and he didn't exactly win that one. We got to be careful about the wide sweeping claims we make about Americans. We're all different, and a large majority is really hard to find.
http://wecantignore.blogspot.com
"Okay, so people agree with Obama about social issues, but not gay marriage or abortion, arguably the two social issues most hotly argued about today. I'm not sure if that really works the way people want it to."
ReplyDeleteActually I don't agree that people are opposed to abortion and gay marriage. Most people agree that a woman has the right to choose, the gray areas are things like "partial birth abortion" or "parental choice" , etc.
As for gay marriage people aren't as opposed anymore as you seem to think. Indeed Blakcs who the social cons thought were going to riot against Obama if he supported gay marriage have actually adjust their opinions on gay marriage.
This idea that most Americans suddenly are against abortions is not true. I assume it's all about the kinds of questions asked. If you tell me that most Americans say women shouldn't have the right to abortion under any circumstances, even rape or the life of the mother you're defintely wrong.
I don't think it's a tough choice for Obama to support gay marriage and abortion. You see that the GOP plans to role back abortion, the forces vagginal ultarsound, etc. have hurt them not Obama as he has a double digit lead with women.
We are all differnt which is the problem with the social cons who want to impose their prohibitions on other Americans
Aubrey in looking at your poll it's what I thought-most Americans in fact think it should be legal but consider themselves "pro-life"
ReplyDeleteThey like the label. But most think it should be "legal in certain cirucumstances" rather than "legal in every circumstance" or "legal in no curcumstance"
I mean I'm very pro choice-I don't think even a 16 year old girl should be prevented from makng her own choice-not her father's choice on the question. However even I can imagine circumstances that it shouldn't happen under.
A Republican "pro lifer" is quite different from the median voter who wants to feel like their "pro life"
It was a slick marketing campgain in calling it pro-life but most people in fact think women should have the choice of abortion. It's certainly not dangerous for Obama to support and it helps him with women. The GOP "religious liberty" canard has not helped Romney