Hell in a handbasket

Well, that’s clearly where America is headed given the rather substantial changes in public attitudes towards a number of “moral” question.  Via Gallup:

Furthermore, I’m also pleased to see the small, but there, negative change on the death penalty.  Here’s the Gallup summary:

Key trends in Americans’ views of the moral acceptability of certain issues and behaviors include the following:

• The substantial increase in Americans’ views that gay and lesbian relations are morally acceptable coincide with a record-high level of support for same-sex marriage and views that being gay or lesbian is something a person is born with, rather than due to one’s upbringing or environment.
• The public is now more accepting of sexual relations outside of marriage in general than at any point in the history of tracking these measures, including a 16-percentage-point increase in those saying that having a baby outside of marriage is morally acceptable, and a 15-point increase in the acceptability of sex between an unmarried man and woman. Clear majorities of Americans now say both are acceptable.
• Acceptance of divorce and human embryo medical research are also up 12 points each since 2001 and 2002, respectively.
• Polygamy and cloning humans have also seen significant upshifts in moral acceptability — but even with these increases, the public largely perceives them as morally wrong, with only 16% and 15% of Americans, respectively, considering them morally acceptable.

…

This liberalization of attitudes toward moral issues is part of a complex set of factors affecting the social and cultural fabric of the U.S. Regardless of the factors causing the shifts, the trend toward a more liberal view on moral behaviors will certainly have implications for such fundamental social institutions as marriage, the environment in which children are raised and the economy. The shifts could also have a significant effect on politics, with candidates whose positioning is based on holding firm views on certain issues having to grapple with a voting population that, as a whole, is significantly less likely to agree with conservative positions than it might have been in the past.

What this does not measure in intensity of opinion and that matters– a lot– in politics.  That said, in general, these shifting morals increasingly may make the Christian right an albatross around the neck of the Republican Party– at least among young people.  Who, for the record, are not going to get more conservative on these values as they age.