For the first time since 2001,  more Americans are liberal than conservative on social issues.

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The graph:

According to Gallup:

This is the first year in Gallup’s trend since 2001 that more Americans have identified as liberal than as conservative on social issues. Although the four-percentage-point gap is not statistically significant, it represents a numeric milestone in the trend, which has seen Americans’ social views becoming more liberal over the past decade.

In most years from 2001 to 2012, social conservatives had a clear advantage over social liberals — by 12 points, on average. Conservatives’ edge shrank to five points in 2013 and, since then, has either remained in single digits or social conservatives and liberals have been tied.

The Republican Culture War Strategy Is Failing

The Republicans have been trying to mix racism, homophobia, and xenophobia into a culture war. The Republican outrage over critical race theory is the latest example of how the GOP can’t win on policy, so they are attempting to divide the nation with culture wars.

The problem for Republicans is that over the past decade, the nation has changed. The receptive audience for a culture war argument is much smaller. The GOP sees the total number of votes that Trump got in 2020 and thinks that a culture war keeps Trumpism alive, but Trump lost by almost eight million votes.

America is becoming a more socially liberal country, and Republicans are being left behind by fighting a culture war that was lost decades ago.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association