Americans and "values": How do Americans feel about abortion and gay marriage?

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNN

October 19, 2007
Americans and values

WASHINGTON (CNN) – How do Americans feel about abortion and gay marriage — two of the major "values" issues of the day?

According to a new CNN Opinion Research Corporation Poll out Friday morning, only about one in five Americans want to prevent abortions from happening under any circumstances. An equal number think abortions should be allowed under any circumstances. That leaves most Americans squarely in the middle, although a plurality would like to see abortions be legal in only a few circumstances. Although they may not want to ban all abortions, most Americans agree that abortion is wrong.

Americans also disapprove of gay marriages. 56 percent of the public says that marriages between homosexuals should not be recognized as valid by law.

The poll comes as thousands of Christian conservatives gather in the nation’s capitol Friday and Saturday for a Value Voters Summit. All of the Republican GOP presidential candidates will attend and speak to the audience....

Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/19/americans-and-values/

[geomon666]

1. Well if anything...

This proves that just because a majority is antiwar, doesn't mean the majority is progressive.

[Newsjock]

2. Screw the 56%

I guess that means I only have to pay 44% of the taxes that "normal" people do. I'm really at my breaking point when it comes to stupid, unenlightened people who continue to hurt my life.

[NMMNG]

4. Amen to that

If we're not going to be given the same rights as other citizens, why should we have the same responsibilities? And screw the 44% of taxes. We shouldn't pay any of them. After all, we aren't given 44% of the rights, are we?

[Acadia Blue]

10. If they cared about the kids after they are born and were willing

to insure that they god decent food, school, and a good environment, I could give them some credence.
Now they are just phoney hypocrits.
I think that eventually Gays will get Gay marriage unless we continue down the dictator path Bushco wants for America.
Why should they not marry? It makes society more stable, and creates more homeowners.

[BlueJazz]

3. Yeck...Just about every poll I see regarding Social issues, the...

..American public shows me how ignorant/Mean they are... :(

[Stuckinthebush]

7. Yes, but think about this

Just a decade ago, that 56% would have been 75%.

Also, the number of Americans opposed to abortion would have been 3 in 5.

Keep pushing for awareness and then things change.

[Mend]

5. these polls are usually in the abstract...when their 14 year old daughter is

pregnant, suddenly abortion is just fine "in their very special case". If I have heard this once from fundies, I have heard it a thousand times. Gays can't marry unless it is their gay child...see the cheeneee's as an example. They are incapable of empathy but very capable of self-interest.

[LeftyMom]

8. That's what I was going to say.

A lot of people who are opposed to marriage equality in theory aren't opposed to it when you phrase it as being about the couples they know, love and care about instead of about strangers in some other state or as a political issue.

If we want to win this one, we have to stick to the human interest angle and not the political machinations.

[Acadia Blue]

12. They don't have empathy chips in their brains. If you remember

your upbringing, your parents used examples that made you empathetic. My mom and dad created it in me. When she or he saw a poor old person having difficulty walking or whatever, the said "oh look at that poor person and how they are sufferring, its terrible." They made us FEEL.
Republicans were not made to put themselves in other's shoes. That is whey they can only relate to what is most close to them like their own kids.

[mwb970]

18. Do uncaring, unfeeling people automatically become Republicans?

Or is there something about becoming a Republican that transforms ordinary, decent Americans into arrogant pricks?

[Mend]

20. that what some brain scans are showing...also, repukes have lower IQs

[saigon68]

21. Yes you are absolutely correct

Especially when their fundy son smokes a "Joint" because some other idiot "made him do it"

[JerseygirlCT]

22. Well, especially WRT gay rights, I think this is key

It's so, so easy for these people to deny a whole group of people their rights when "those" people are strangers to them, never part of their lives or experience.

Much harder when it's that really nice guy down the street who mowed your lawn when you were away on vacation.

Ignorance begets these sort of attitudes.

[Stuckinthebush]

6. In a 1950s poll...

The majority of Americans indicated that non-white citizens shouldn't be given the right to vote.

In a 1915 poll, the majority of Americans did not agree that women should be given the right to vote.

In a 1940s poll, the majority of Americans did not believe that it was ok for people of different races to marry.

To me, the 56% of Americans who disapprove of same sex marriage are on the wrong side of morality here. One day soon that 56% will be 46% and then 36% and then it will be considered ludicrous to think that once gay marriage was illegal.

Keep fighting for the day when Americans get a clue.

[TalkingDog]

9. And in 2075....

people will look back at sites like DU and smirk over how unenlighted we all are.



My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[Solon]

16. Just a correction, in 1990, most people thought interracial marriages were wrong...

Bigotry is hard to get rid of.

[Odin2005]

26. I rember seeing a recent poll now saying most people think interracial relationships were fine.

97% of folks under 30 had no problem with interracial relationships!!! :wow:

[Solon]

28. Probably because many of them have been in such relationships...

I'm 29, and I've dated girls of practically all ethnic varieties, depending on availability. African American, Latino, Native-American, and many of mixed heritage. And yes, before you ask, many of these ladies have met my parents somewhere along the line as we dated. I find it somewhat callous that some people have the attitude that some people they date are "parent meeting" material, and some aren't. Not to mention that my Sister-in-law's child, my nephew, is bi-racial, half white, half African-American.

[Odin2005]

29. my girlfriend is Native American.

I'm 21 and I've never understood how people can be so obsessed with race; and I'm not just talking about racists, I'm also talking about "identity politics"-based thinking. Race is not really something that cross my mind, people are people.

[Stuckinthebush]

27. Yeah, good point

But thank the gods that people have drastically changed their perspective on that.

It's always the younger generation who says, "What the hell? That's stupid." Let's hope that Generation Y or P or whatever this new generation is will help us to get past our anti-gay junk in this society.

[bdamomma]

11. I am pro choice and leave the gays alone.

[AngryAmish]

13. I don't think there are a lot of abortions within gay marriages.

Especially if the two gay folks are both men.

[noonwitch]

14. I think abortion should be legal, but that doesn't mean I always think it's right.

I totally support gay marriage, and support Roe v Wade. I don't think it's the govenment's right to ban abortion.

I do think that it is a good thing for antiabortion groups to form organizations that help pregnant women-as long as they are upfront about their purpose. If a woman's sole reason for considering abortion is financial, then maybe she does need to hear about ways she can get assistance.

[Mend]

19. the biggest group of women who get abortions are married with kids...the

biggest reason is lack of money. Bill Clinton improved the finances of the middle class and the abortion rate went down. bush is ruining the middle class and abortions are up. That is true. Money just isn't there and there is NO assistance...I have had people call those fundie places and there is NO money there...they want you to put your (white) baby up for adoption. Please don't forget they just failed to get the SCHIP program through and one right-wing message about the little girl with the heart disease was, "if you don't have health insurance, you shouldn't have had her". This is not about having babies, this is punishing women for having sex. Once the baby is born, they don't give a damn.

[JerseygirlCT]

24. Yes. nt

[Deja Q]

15. More important, how about their own personal futures?

That's the jive that's been putting society where it is at today; looking after #1?

Trouble is, which candidates seem the most sincere?

[DarienComp]

17. wasn't opposition to gay marriage in the 60% only 3 years ago?

this may be progress...

[JerseygirlCT]

23. Yes, and younger generations find it far more acceptable.

Things are absolutely changing. This will be one of those things we look back at and the small kids today will be amazed that it was ever a question.

[Odin2005]

25. Not suprising. In my experience the average American is economically progressive but socially...

...conservative.

[SyntaxError]

30. How 56% want to dictate what others can and cannot do...

I simply do not understand, and no matter how many times I ask for an explanation, I never get anything clear. I'm not a homosexual, but it pisses me off that others think they have the right to impose their moral beliefs on others. If it isn't harming others then they need to STFU and mind their own business.