As recently as a decade ago, the marriage-equality movement looked like a long, tough slog. Today, about 55 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage; it is now legal in 17 states, seven of those having acted in the past year alone. … Recently, a very high-level GOP operative confided that […] Read more »
Americans’ Satisfaction With Economy Sours Most Since 2001
Americans are now more satisfied with many issues than they were 13 years ago, but they are significantly less satisfied with the economy and the role the U.S. plays in world affairs. The 40-percentage-point drop in Americans’ satisfaction with the economy, along with a 21-point drop in the world affairs […] Read more »
Polling for a new federalism
Several items in the news lately demonstrate that our nation’s current strain of federalism is straining. State-legal marijuana vendors in Colorado and Washington cannot use banks because of federal rules. The federal and some state governments are vexed over handling tax and other legal matters for same-sex couples married in […] Read more »
Young and Restless: How Millennials Have Already Reshaped Politics
Almost every week provides more evidence of the political system bending toward the cultural preferences of the massive millennial generation. But evidence is accumulating just as quickly of the system’s failure to respond to its economic needs. CONT. Ron Brownstein, National Journal Read more »
The S-Curve of Cultural Change
Many observers have been struck by how quickly public opinion has shifted on homosexuality in the United States. … In the mid-1970s, about 70 percent of Americans told pollsters that “sexual relations between two adults of the same sex” were “always wrong.” In the 2010s only 46 percent did. Note […] Read more »
Gallup: A review of the year’s major findings, from politics to well-being
Gallup.com chronicled Americans’ responses to the major issues and events that will define 2013 in the annals of history, from Edward Snowden’s revelations about U.S. government spying to the federal government shutdown, to the possibility of war with Syria. Gallup’s editors and writers explored what was perhaps the biggest development […] Read more »