Pubdate: Sun, 27 Jun 2010
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2010 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/letters_editor.htm
Website: http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Kyle Smith

END OF THE CULTURE WARS

Young Republicans Embrace Low Taxes, but Reject Moral Issues

You know something is changing in American mores when the supposed 
leader of the culture wars from the right, Sarah Palin, declares that 
smoking pot is "a minimal problem" and that "if somebody's gonna 
smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then 
perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in."

Like many other pointless wars, the culture conflict has mainly 
resulted in exhaustion. Now the troops are laying down their arms and 
going home.

More and more Americans, particularly in the youngest generation of 
adults, are shrugging at drug use, gay relationships, pre-marital 
cohabitation, single motherhood, interracial marriage (which is now 
all but universally accepted) and gun ownership. More and more people 
aren't bothering to lug their church to the voting booth.

If only people between the ages of 18 to 29 voted, 38 states would 
support gay marriage, says a study by Jeffrey Lax and Justin Phillips 
of Columbia University.  Will today's youngsters change their minds 
about gay marriage as they age? Don't count on it.

Support for issues such as gays' ability to adopt and marry appears 
closely linked to how close you are with gay people. And a 
CNN/Opinion Research poll last year said 49% report having a family 
member or close friend who is gay. That's up eight points from 1998 
and up 17 points from 1992. Among those 65 and older, just one in 
three say that.

About two out of five Americans support legalizing pot - one in five 
among seniors and three in five among young adults. But the pot 
question, unlike the gay-marriage question, has been posed for 
decades. So the demographic trends are clearer: even in the Cheech 
and Chong-y '70s, support for legalizing marijuana peaked at 30%. 
Today's figures are, um, higher than ever - and the Pew figures are 
backed by a Gallup survey last fall in which 44% OK'd legalized 
toking.  Medicinal marijuana enjoys 73% support.

Just about the only encouragement for cultural conservatives lately 
has been an uptick in the popularity of the term "pro-life." A Gallup 
poll last fall found 51% calling themselves pro-life (before 
subsiding to 47% in the most recent survey). But there hasn't been a 
surge in calling for the criminalization of abortion, or even for 
discarding Roe v. Wade (which could be nixed without any state making 
abortion illegal).

Polls over the years consistently show that about three-quarters 
think abortion should be legal at least sometimes, and three out of 
five support Roe. Even on this most fraught issue, morality and 
legality seem to be parting company. Palin, far from calling for a 
Constitutional amendment to ban abortion (Ronald Reagan's official 
position, though he never did anything about it), simply thinks Roe 
should be overturned and each state should be free to make its own 
abortion policy. Her moral view - opposing abortion except to save 
the life of the mother - is strongly held, but she shows no sign of 
wanting to impose it on others. Perhaps she will turn out to be a 
libertarian in disguise: Alaska is the state with the second-highest 
libertarian presence (after Montana), according to a study by the 
Free State Project.

Democrats who have traditionally been spooked by social issues, and 
found themselves trying to change the subject when polls showed 
voters disagreeing with them on moral questions, must be relieved at 
the thought that Republicans will shortly no longer be able to 
broadcast fear over their 3G network - God, guns and gays. But the 
Democrats shouldn't be so sure about that.

For starters, a move toward a more libertarian America actually helps 
the NRA. Pew regularly polls Americans to ask which they find more 
important: the right to own guns, or gun control? In 2000, the split 
was 29% on the pistol-packing side and 66% shunning firearms. This 
spring a Pew poll showed a tie - 46% on each side. Only about half of 
Americans even support banning assault weapons, down from 
three-quarters 20 years ago.  Moreover, a Rasmussen poll this week 
found 48% today see government as a threat to individual rights.

It shouldn't be a surprise that in both New Jersey and Massachusetts, 
old-guard liberals were recently replaced by Chris Christie and Scott 
Brown, libertarian-ish Republicans who are socially liberal but 
fiscally conservative.

Moreover, when we've heard the last Southern pol protest that God 
didn't launch humanity with Adam & Steve (no, but if he had, the 
decor in the Garden of Eden would have been amazing), Republicans 
won't be able to hide from their economic positions. Either they 
stake out a clear difference with Democrats on fiscal questions, or 
they become irrelevant, a party without an argument or a base.

You may have heard a word or two about the Tea Party, which is 
fiscally focused. But the accompanying demise of Reagan-era groups 
like the Christian Coalition and the Moral Majority is just as 
important. The morality armies have failed to inspire their children 
to join the crusade. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake