Attitudes shift on abortion, same-sex marriage (Calif. Field Poll)

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

... The poll showed that "the most significant changes" in Californians' social views in the last three decades has been their switch on allowing same-sex couples to marry, the poll showed.

In 1977, a Field Poll found that Californians opposed same-sex marriage, 62 to 31 percent; three decades later, the Field Poll shows they now support it, 49 to 44 percent.

... Public opinion on same-sex marriage breaks dramatically along party lines: Democrats in 1977, for example, were opposed to same-sex marriage by a 2-to-1 ratio. Today, they support the issue 2 to 1.

Independent voters were opposed to same-sex marriage in 1977 by a 5-to-3 ratio; today, they support it 5 to 3, the poll showed.

That's in contrast to Republicans, who today are actually "more opposed than they were 30 years ago" to same-sex marriage, the poll found. In 1977, GOP voters stood against it 65 to 30 percent; today, they are against it 68 to 23 percent.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/05/MNRO193QGM.DTL&tsp=1

[WillParkinson]

1. And yet...

Prop 8 passed.

I'm sorry if I have a difficult time believing in polls. It would be nice, but does it mean that those who are in favor just didn't vote?

Polls can be found to support things the way people see them. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

[DesertDiamond]

4. I believe the Prop 8 pudding was poisoned by last-minute BS ad campaign

Misleading TV ads aimed at getting emotional reactions, with twisted truths or no truth behind them. Also, I suspect some tampering at the polls. Wasn't California using at least some Diebold machines in that election?

[ronnykmarshall]

7. We don't have Diebold machines.

And one of the other problems is that the "leaders" of the No on 8 camp had its head up its ass.

[David__77]

8. Generally voters are more conservative as a group than are adults at large.

If everyone were forced to vote, I believe it wouldn't have passed.

[elocs]

11. Propositions are passed or defeated by those who actually turn out to vote.

Usually one side is more motivated than another.

[Ian David]

14. It passed because the people running the campaign opposing it were incompetent.

But the folks who ran the successful campaign for Marriage Equality in Massachusetts are now running things in California.

The bigots won't be so lucky next time.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I think this proves something. Republicans don't evolve! They just stay the same.

They don't experience personal 'growth'. They don't expand their minds through experience.

[joeybee12]

3. I think this poll provides proof for the theory of de-evolution....n/t

[Doremus]

5. That's exactly the conclusion that I came to. Sickening, isn't it?

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Or they leave the party

Because they lose hope that the party will change along with them.

[rfranklin]

9. All the regressive Dems became Reagan Republicans....

Just as all the racists (many of the same people) flocked to the Republicans when they started using affirmative action to explain why jobs were disappearing (while they were being shipped to China.)

[slackmaster]

10. Another perspective on California voter attitude shifts from Dan Walters

Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite:

...The Field Research Corp., the state's oldest polling organization, charts that change – and the even greater change in the larger population – in its latest examination of the state's electorate, surveying thousands of Californians about who they are and how they orient themselves politically and confirming the previous anecdotal observations.

The Field Poll contrasts 1978 – a watershed year in which the landmark property tax limit, Proposition 13, was passed – with 2009. Among its findings:

California's white non-Latino population has dipped 26.1 percent over the last 31 years, but the proportion of white voters has dropped by just 18 percent, meaning the ethnic gap between voters and nonvoters has actually increased.

The share of the electorate held by the two major parties, more than 90 percent in 1978, has dropped to under 76 percent as the ranks of independents have swelled from less than 8 percent to 20 percent, with most of that shift coming at the expense of Democrats....

Full opinion piece at http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/05/lz1e5walters222330-behind-californias-dysfunction/?uniontrib

[Arugula Latte]

12. Anti-gay marriage people will eventually die off enough for us to legalize it.

[BadgerKid]

13. Against same-sex marriage? Don't have one! n/t