Has the Culture War returned for 2012? And is the GOP on the losing side now?

[Person Man]

No, we shouldn't allow society to fall to the vultures of immorality

Yeah, especially with all the party music at the gym....and the big bands that play outside on the plaza. Yup. Its a pretty debauched place.

[Person Man]

Treating these issues as a package obscures a lot.  Gay rights has made stunning progress in the last decade, but the same is definitely not true for the pro-choice movement, who are losing ground and suffer setback after setback.  I don't think the GOP is losing the abortion debate at all.

The abortion debate has never really "started" or "ended", throughout history, people have always debated it and there has been as many and as varied abortion policies as there have been societies that make them. Though, I know of only one society where it was the same as murder and several where it was even seen as desirable. The median position throughout history and different cultures is that its to be taken on a case by case basis as much as possible.

On the other hand, our gay debate is simply a product of trying conform our ideas of freedom to our ideas about the officialness of marriage and preconceived notions of sexuality that are again as varied as our notions of abortion.

[Person Man]

There's a very simple reason the GOP has done so well on the abortion debate: federal abortion laws in the United States are not only significantly more lenient than the international norm, but they are much more lenient than most Americans want. Both the official Democrat/Republican position on Abortion are far away from what most Americans want, but the current status quo is closer to the Democrat position, which naturally gives the "issue" advantage to the GOP. If abortion laws become far more strict, I could see this reversing.

Significantly more lenient that the international norm? They're roughly as restrictive as Canada, Cuba, Guyana, South Africa, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Baltics, Norway, Sweden, the fmr. Yugoslavia, the fmr. Soviet Union, Bahrain, China, Mongolia, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, and many others. We're nowhere near more lenient than the "international norm" if you're considering the international norm to be developed countries and others comparable to the United States.

It's a very mixed bag on social issues. The GOP has basically achieved total and complete victory on gun issues. Both parties will probably lose with the War on Drugs. Affirmative action will probably go onto the same dustheap of history as forced busing. There are more to social issues than "GOD AND GAYS" and the GOP has actually been pretty successful on those social issues.

Yes, yes, 2nd Amendment stands, War on Drugs is a failure like Prohibition, affirmative action eventually dies, and liberalism prevails.

That's pretty much the issue..basically younger people believe the same that older people do on abortion. Do you think this will change when they are older or do you think that as there are new other issues, so will there be fresh perspectives on the issues?