As media member after media member used Arlen Specter's defection to the Democrat Party Tuesday as an example of how conservatism in America is either dying or dead, a new poll found this to be wishful thinking.
In fact, in two of the key issues that have been largely divided along party lines for decades, namely abortion and gun control, a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center showed the nation moving to the right on both.
Here were the surprising findings (h/t Glenn Reynolds):
For the first time in a Pew Research survey, nearly as many people believe it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns (45%) than to control gun ownership (49%). As recently as a year ago, 58% said it was more important to control gun ownership while 37% said it was more important to protect the right to own guns.
Doesn't quite fit the picture media are painting about America, does it?The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 31-April 21 among 1,521 adults reached on landlines and cell phones, also finds public opinion about abortion more closely divided than it has been in several years. Currently, 46% say abortion should be legal in most cases (28%) or all cases (18%); 44% believe that abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%). Since the mid-1990s, majorities have consistently favored legal abortion, with the exception of an August 2001 survey by ABC News/Washington Post.
The proportion saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has declined to 46% from 54% last August.
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.
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→ I must admit
May 2, 2009 - 20:40 ET by Cool ArrowThe recent election, and the foolishness of heroin-addled Bobby Rush, and the turnabout from that turncoat who replaced Hillary Clinton in the Senate, have made me aware of my duty to defend my right to bear arms.
I'm not a threat to anybody. But I believe in the Constitution.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
**Cool Arrow
May 2, 2009 - 20:58 ET by pelicanmarshAh, to the contrary Cool Arrow--
Since you believe in the Constitution, that makes you a threat to a great many people.
Molto bravo.
→ Sometimes I forget
May 2, 2009 - 21:03 ET by Cool ArrowWhen the people fear their government there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
Right about now, Jefferson would be calling us a bunch of pansies.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
**Cool Arrow
May 2, 2009 - 21:14 ET by pelicanmarshThat Jefferson quote is so awesome, I bought a t-shirt from American Uprising that has it printed on the back.
(Yes, a shamless plug -- www.americanuprising...)
And right now Jefferson would be saying, "Help help, I can't breathe someone get me outta this box!" Okay, bad joke.
Cool Arrow, comments and attitudes such as yours are why I am here on NB. Yeah, sure, it's fun and all posting comments and taking jabs at liberals, but at the end of the day, I make sure I am ready for tomorrow, ready to walk in a nation not of my making.
And that, sir, is not a joke.
Uh huh "The wrOng ONE was
May 2, 2009 - 21:18 ET by Scuba DudeUh huh
"The wrOng ONE was elected"
→ My grandkids
May 2, 2009 - 21:30 ET by Cool ArrowIt bothers the heck out of me that my grandkids probably won't see anythink like the Country we take so much pride in.
I'd go through a Depression to avoid their enslavement to foreign leinholders, but I'm not even given that option.
Who would forgive an Administration that wantonly puts our children in this predicament?
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
i think they will cool
May 2, 2009 - 23:45 ET by TruthMongeri think they will cool - but I'm not sure why...
maybe its our Conserative Christian optimism that built this nation - the greatest in the entire history of mankind, perhaps...?
government is the communists capitalism
"Doesn't quite fit the
May 2, 2009 - 21:04 ET by R D Helm"Doesn't quite fit the picture media are painting about America, does it?"
The proof will be, as it always is, in the pudding, and that will come in the 2010 mid-term elections.
I am not even remotely optimistic.
Based on my observations of events that have unfolded in this country over the last 103 days, I expect there will be a 96% retention rate for congress critters in the next election, as the American sheeple aren't even close to catching on to what is really happening in this country.
I will further say that, thanks to the efforts of ACORN, particularly in their involvement in the census (which the Obamnistas brazenly snatched in broad daylight, right of front of God and everybody) and voter registration, Barack Hussein Obama will easily win re-election in 2012, and will be handed a defeat-proof socialist congress in the process.
I'm sorry, but the Marxist coup that is currently underway is going to be successful.
-Dave
This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.
**R D Helm
May 2, 2009 - 21:06 ET by pelicanmarshI'm sorry, but the Marxist coup that is currently underway is going to be successful.
Mr. Helm- how serious are you about that statement?
→ Pelican
May 2, 2009 - 21:11 ET by Cool ArrowIt already is successful.
All that's left is for the individual States to take sides and demand Pandora get back in her box and let us be Americans again.
Personallly, I'm not all that convinced there are enough States willing to stand up to this Narcissistic Administration.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
he's very serious pelican
May 2, 2009 - 21:15 ET by candanceRD is a friend of mine and we talk about stuff all the time. I know exactly where his heart is.
Thanks, cd.
May 2, 2009 - 21:48 ET by R D HelmI luvv you, too, darlin.'
:-)
-Dave
This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.
**Good to hear
May 2, 2009 - 21:20 ET by pelicanmarshI think I'm seeing a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
How refreshing to know that there are other like-minded folks who are preparing for the inevitable.
I'll leave it at that, for now.
Did you just reply to your
May 2, 2009 - 21:24 ET by Free StinkerDid you just reply to your own message ?
why yes Free
May 2, 2009 - 21:28 ET by candanceI think he did.
Sometimes noobs get confused and make mistakes, especially when they are multitasking.
**Free Stinker
May 2, 2009 - 21:30 ET by pelicanmarshActually, I did! I did it this way so my comment would fall in line with Cool Arrow's and candance's comments. Like, aesthetically in-line.
Now that I look at it again, it looks like I replied to my own comment, but not in the way I intended.
(I shall slink away sheepishly now...)
→ 's OK pelican
May 2, 2009 - 21:33 ET by Cool ArrowI talk to myself all the time.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
**Cool Arrow
May 2, 2009 - 21:36 ET by pelicanmarshWe don't know what you are talking about. We are definitely not schizophrenic.
We think you have us confused with someone else.
(I'm waiting to see if my humor makes sense to you.)
→ Of course
May 2, 2009 - 21:43 ET by Cool ArrowI once said "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous", until I met a man with no pen.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
Since 01/20/09, the federal
May 2, 2009 - 21:34 ET by R D HelmSince 01/20/09, the federal government has moved to nationalize our financial system, has taken, or is in the process of taking, effective control of two of the three U.S. automakers (and Ford isn't as safe as they think they are), and is now about to complete a takeover of our national health care system.
I expect that private energy producers are next on their target list, and due to the continued, artificially-induced economic slide, the major retailers will be soon, as well.
By the elections of 2010, about the only private enterprise that will not be under some degree of government control will be your neighbor's garage sale.
Maybe.
What is more, the Obamanistas are already moving quietly to stifle dissent in this country, and they aren't going to stop with just talk radio, either.
The republicans cannot prevent any of the above from happening, as they don't have the votes to stop it, or even slow it down.
They only difference between this and most other Marxist coups is the lack of bullets flying through the air.
-Dave
This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.
just keep things up
May 2, 2009 - 23:27 ET by RowaneRemember that Obambi isn't running in the midterms so there won't be NEARLY as big a turn out, we just have get the vote out at the same level we usually do and it'll be all over.
good thought Rowane
May 2, 2009 - 23:31 ET by botgsounds quite plausible
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” -- Chief Justice John Roberts
Noel... This poll put a
May 2, 2009 - 21:04 ET by bigtimerNoel...
This poll put a smile on my face for the evening.
Anybody hear about Lugar and the international law via the UN on all registration for gun-owners world-wide that is attempting to be slithered in a bill...I only heard part of this in the wee hours of the morn and wondered if anybody knows anything about this...any links?
I found some interesting, reputable ones in my view, but they are old now.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Shocking that they released it.
May 2, 2009 - 21:19 ET by slickwillie2001Also shocking that the far-left Pew Organization would release the results of this poll, and not simply bury it in a deep hole. Perhaps they are trying to stimulate the liberal base.
Abortion conversation
May 2, 2009 - 22:10 ET by KC MulvilleIt always strikes me that abortion is the one subject that dominates a whole genre of national conversation ("social issues"), but we have rarely actually discussed it.
Harry Blackmun discussed it. We've been laughing ever since.
But since Blackmun's "opinion," we have spent the last thirty-or-so years talking around it. The Supreme Court talks about everything but, and they refuse to revisit the central issue. The Blackmun opinion no longer governs, but what currently governs (i.e., Casey) simply says that abortion is a fundamental right, without specifying why. Basically, the Court accepted Roe's conclusion, but rejected its rationale ... and didn't replace it with anything. It is a legal fiat; it's a conclusion without any official explanation.
Sure, at any given moment, you can find hundreds of individuals discussing abortion (including here), but it's never all of us discussing it collectively (i.e., Congress).
I'm convinced that if Congress actually discussed it, and we had a calm, national conversation about it, most of the bitterness would go away. I believe it would sway opinion against abortion; but even if it didn't, at least we wouldn't have the bitterness we have now.
And the only reasons the
May 3, 2009 - 09:03 ET by GrannyGrump42And the only reasons the numbers saying they favor abortion being legal are as high as they are is that most people (even marchers at "prochoice" rallies) don't realize that abortion is legal on demand for 24 weeks in every state, and even later in practice in other states.
After 12 weeks support for pulling babies apart falls off pretty sharply.
and yet still
May 3, 2009 - 19:28 ET by katainkentthere seems to be a massive disconnect with what we believe vs how we vote. I look at my die hard Catholic parents and wonder how the bloody h*** they voted for Obama.
Hold on ‘cause the world will turn if you're ready or not ~ KT Tunstall
kata.... The world seems
May 3, 2009 - 19:36 ET by bigtimerkata....
The world seems to be upside down at times...well, most of the time anymore.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart