Hi y'all,
An interesting new Gallup Poll (here) shows that for the first time Americans now identify themselves as Pro-Life rather than calling themselves Pro-Choice. A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995…
Americans' recent shift toward the pro-life position is confirmed in two other surveys. The same three abortion questions asked on the Gallup Values and Beliefs survey were included in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from May 12-13, with nearly identical results, including a 50% to 43% pro-life versus pro-choice split on the self-identification question.
I don't know why this would happen, but it looks like a good change. Just in time for our next Supreme Court Justice to be nominated. May God bless your week. /s/Tom
1 comment:
I'm sad to say that I think what we are seeing here is a victory on the part of the Republican propaganda machine.
Republicans, capitalizing on the politics of fear-mongering after 9/11, managed to recruit a lot of moderate independents. Many of those were pro-choicers. As the Bush years progressed into the current anti-Obama frenzy (perpetuated by the AM radio crowd), a lot of those converts have succumbed to the more reactionary rhetoric of the far-Right, and now rank themselves with the anti- choice clique.
The Gallup poll supports this:
"The source of the shift in abortion views is clear in the Gallup Values and Beliefs survey. The percentage of Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) calling themselves "pro-life" rose by 10 points over the past year, from 60% to 70%, while there has been essentially no change in the views of Democrats and Democratic leaners."In any case, the whole debate has never been about what the majority WANTS. It is about what is RIGHT. For the past several decades, the two have coincided on the abortion issue. Hopefully they soon will again. In the meantime, if I start hearing Dittoheads talk about changing laws because the people are for it, I will patiently remind them that at various times the people also supported slavery, Native American genocide, the death penalty for "blasphemy" and the suppression of a woman's right to vote.
It should also be noted that 51% is a pretty shaky result to call a "majority." The margin of error in almost all Gallup polls is 3.5%, which means that you would need 54% to be certain of your majority.
And speaking of the Supreme Court, did Obama prove his smarts or what?
Pax,
~E~
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