{"id":67346,"date":"2023-06-14T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=67346"},"modified":"2023-06-10T13:01:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T17:01:52","slug":"the-percentage-of-social-conservatives-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/06\/the-percentage-of-social-conservatives-surges\/","title":{"rendered":"The Percentage of “Social Conservatives” Surges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Social conservatives feel demonized, marginalized, and defeated.\u00a0 To the point that many of them are considering dropping out of political activism or giving up on cultural issues to concentrate on less divisive causes.<\/p>\n

But lo and behold, it turns out that the percentage of Americans who consider themselves social conservatives is surging!\u00a0 And the percentage of social liberals is dropping significantly.<\/p>\n

Those are the findings of a Gallup Poll<\/a>, the gold standard of opinion surveys.\u00a0 In the annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted just last month, researchers found at 38% of Americans said that they were conservative or very conservative on social issues.\u00a0 This is a jump from last year\u2019s 33%, which was a jump from 30% in 2021.<\/p>\n

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For the past two years, 34% of Americans said that they are liberal or very liberal on social issues.\u00a0 This year the percentage has dropped to only 29%.\u00a0 The percentage of \u201cmoderates\u201d has remained about the same at 31%.<\/p>\n

This means that the percentage of social conservatives is the highest it has been since 2012.<\/p>\n

Americans are even more conservative when it comes to economic issues, with 44% saying they are conservative or very conservative; 33% moderate; and only 21% liberal or very liberal.<\/p>\n

In fact, a majority of Democrats<\/em> have doubts about liberal economics.\u00a0 Less than half, 48%, say they are liberal or very liberal on economic issues, with 35% saying they are moderate and 16% saying they are conservative.<\/p>\n

On social issues, Democrats are more predictable, with 10% being conservative, 27% being moderate, and\u00a0 62% being liberal.<\/p>\n

The popularity of conservatism is manifesting itself in the Republican party catching up to and passing the Democrats in the number of adherents.\u00a0 In both 2020 and 2021, 32% of Americans identified as Democrats with 29% identifying as Republicans.\u00a0 In 2023, the percentage of Democrats has dropped to 29% and the percentage of Republicans has risen to 30%.<\/p>\n

So what is going on?\u00a0 Why is the percentage of social conservatives growing so much?\u00a0 And why is this such surprising news to social conservatives, who have mostly been convinced they are losing?<\/p>\n

Now it would help for Gallup to define their terms.\u00a0 What beliefs characterize \u201csocial conservatives\u201d?\u00a0 Opposition to abortion?\u00a0 The rejection of transgenderism?\u00a0 Is \u201ceconomic conservativism\u201d about balanced budgets and avoiding debt?\u00a0 Or free market capitalism?\u00a0 Free trade or buying American?\u00a0 Probably more information from this \u201cValues and Beliefs\u201d survey will be forthcoming.<\/p>\n

My theory for the growth of social conservatism is this:\u00a0 Americans are a tolerant lot, willing to let people do pretty much what they want.\u00a0 Thus the broad-based acceptance of gays and same-sex marriage.\u00a0 Same with individuals who want to change their gender.<\/p>\n

But then this new acceptance was pushed to an extreme.\u00a0 Thrown into everybody\u2019s face.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t enough for the public to tolerate these kinds of things.\u00a0 Everyone must approve<\/em> of them.\u00a0 Otherwise, you will be condemned as a bigot.<\/p>\n

When people are attacked, they are typically not persuaded.\u00a0 Rather, they become defensive.\u00a0 Which makes them impossible to persuade.\u00a0 And they likely move to a harder position.<\/p>\n

And when transgenderism is turned into an ideology that impinges on individuals who do not go along with that ideology, those individuals will react in the opposite direction.\u00a0 Pronoun mandates are bad enough.\u00a0 But indoctrinating parents\u2019 children<\/em> into this ideology and subjecting them to sexual mutilation and making them infertile\u2013few parents can accept this.<\/p>\n

And the absurdity of it all\u2013the notion that merely identifying as a different gender means you must be treated as having a different sex, so that we have biological males competing in women\u2019s sports, going to women\u2019s bathrooms, winning \u201cwomen of the year\u201d recognitions, claiming to be lesbians so they can have sex with women, etc., etc.\u2013is a sure formula for creating social conservatives.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the whole woke mentality\u2013which requires constant monitoring of your speech and actions, along with the risk of a mistake being punished by losing your job or reputation\u2013creates deep resentment.\u00a0 People may not dare admit to disapproving, but they do.<\/p>\n

And, ironically, since our media and corporate elite and all of their peers tend to be Democrats, 62% of which are very liberal about such things, they assume that these highly-contested and controversial issues are settled values.\u00a0 So they are genuinely surprised when so many\u00a0 customers of Bud Light, Target, or Thrivent<\/a> (formerly the Aid Association for Lutherans) turn against them for embracing everything LGBTQ+.<\/p>\n

All of this is to say that over-reaching creates a reaction in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my theory for the resurgence of social conservatism.\u00a0 Feel free to offer other theories and explanations.<\/p>\n

So what should social conservatives do, now that their numbers have grown so much?\u00a0 After all, an alliance with moderates would amount to a progressive-skeptical majority of 69%!\u00a0 And surely the opinions of a mere 29% of the public cannot carry the day for long.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image by Mohamed Hassan from PxHere<\/a><\/strong> .\u00a0 CC0, Public Domain<\/em><\/p>\n

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Social conservatives often feel defeated. And yet a recent Gallup Poll shows that the percentage of Americans who consider themselves social conservatives is surging.\u00a0 And the percentage of social liberals is dropping significantly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":67366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,13,36,42],"tags":[13520,13470,2037],"class_list":["post-67346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-culture","category-economics","category-politics","category-social-science","tag-economic-conservatives","tag-reaction-against-progressivism","tag-social-conservatives"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Percentage of "Social Conservatives" Surges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Social conservatives often feel defeated. 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