Americans' Views on Moral and Social Issues

June 12, 2008 4:36 PM | | Comments (1)

There are two new polls out that look at the constellation of issues that include moral values and gay marriage, the first from Gallup and the other from Pew Research.

Gallup finds in a poll conducted May 8-11 that there is a significant number of all Americans who believe the state of moral values in the country is poor, but that view is hold the most strongly by Republicans. Forty-four percent of Americans say the state of moral values in the country is poor, 41 percent say "only fair," 13 percent describe them as good and only 2 percent as excellent. Eighty-one percent say they are getting worse.

Fifty-one percent of Republicans rate moral values in the country as poor compared to 40 percent each for Democrats and independents. All of the groups are pretty much in agreement that things are getting worse.

Gallup says its polling since 2002 has consistently found this negative outlook about moral values and says "Republicans' disaffection with the nation's moral climate (but not Democrats' or independents') has been elevated over the past two years."

A new Pew Research Center survey, conducted May 21-25, took the country's temperature on the gay marriage issue, which was stoked again by last month's California court decision striking down the state's ban on same-sex unions. Pew found that Americans overall were somewhat less opposed to gay marriages than they were four years ago. Forty-nine percent of Americans oppose them while 38 percent said they should be allowed, compared to a 56 percent to 32 percent margin four years ago.

The issue remains high on the agenda of white evangelicals. While 22 percent of Democrats and 23 percent of independents said the issue was "very important" to their vote, the number for white evangelicals was 49 percent. Forty-one percent of Republicans said it was very important to their voting decisions.

For more on this subject, see Stateline.org's piece, States at Odds Over Gay Marriage Recognition.

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    Comments

  1. Gallup and Pew and all you other pollsters out there need to start catching on to the fact that I (and many other people, no doubt) always vote my "moral values" and whenever polled always say that "moral values" are way up on my list of priorities.

    So? Well, I'm just not the sort the Republicans would include in the category of "values voters." Why not? Because I'm a feminist and a liberal and pro-choice and an atheist and, oh yes, I'm a lesbian. I loathe Bush's war and I deplore the death penalty. I believe in universal health care and limits on gun ownership. My "moral values" reflect all these features and more.

    Oh, and one other thing: I'm married in one of the civilized countries where that's legal, so I also always call myself "married" when pollsters call.

    So the next time you conduct or read or report on polls of "values voters," remember that I'm in there among lots of Republicans and religious-right types who don't like me very much. And, you can count on this: I'm not alone in the midst of my political enemies.


    Posted by: S1 Author Profile Page | June 13, 2008 10:37 AM

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