Not so conservative times in U.S.

After the November elections in the U.S. swept Republicans into power in the House of Representatives and a number of state legislatures and governorships, to say nothing of the exuberance of the Tea Partiers, one might have thought Americans were swinging hard to the right. The Pew Research Centre begs to differ. In a recent survey, the prominent research group revealed some intriguing drifts toward moderation in our southern neighbour.

• Opinion on gay marriage, still strongly opposed only a few years ago, is now evenly split.
• Support for the view that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has recovered from a low in 2008, and is now at 54 per cent as opposed to 42 per cent who think it should be illegal.
• Support for legalizing marijuana has continued to increase to 45 per cent, closing in on the support for maintaining its illegality which has dropped to 50 per cent.

As the graphs below indicate, some significant trends in American attitudes are clearly moving in a progressive direction. Encouraging stuff.
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