Gallup is out with its moral acceptability survey. "Regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, for each [issue], please tell me whether you personally believe that in general it is morally acceptable or morally wrong."
The death penalty comes in at 60% acceptable to 35% not. The 25% acceptable-not spread is exactly the same as three years ago, when it was 59-34. The ideological spread is significant but less than most other non-consensus issues, with 66% of self-identified conservatives and 46% of self-identified liberals saying it is morally acceptable edtabs.
For comparison, let us define a "consensus" issue as one where the number of people giving one answer is more than double the number giving the opposing answer. At the two ends of the spectrum are birth control at 92-6 and adultery at 9-89. Eleven of the 21 issues have less than a 2-to-1 spread. I will call these "non-consensus issues."
Unsurprisingly, abortion has the deepest ideological divide of the non-consensus issues. It came in at 42-50 overall and had the highest number of respondents break out of the choices offered and answer "it depends": 6%. The numbers were 23-71-6 for conservatives and a nearly mirror-image 73-22-4 for liberals, a 50% spread in the "acceptable" figure. Moderates, again unsurprisingly, came in down the middle: 43-48-8.
Doctor-assisted suicide had a 36% ideological spread. Having a baby outside of marriage had a 30% spread.
The death penalty numbers are 66-31-3 for conservatives and a nearly identical 64-31-4 for moderates. Liberals split right down the middle on the issue: 46-46-7.
That is a 20% spread between conservatives and liberals on the "acceptable" answer. Of the 11 non-consensus issues, 8 had a greater ideological spread. Only the two "animal" questions, fur clothes and medical testing, had less polarity.
The down-the-middle split among American liberals generally contrast sharply with a strong anti-death-penalty consensus among left-wing politicians. This explains much of the current politics of the death penalty. In California in recent years, the people have repeatedly voted to retain and strengthen the death penalty, but for unrelated reasons they have elected left-wing governors and attorneys general and a left-wing dominated legislature. So far, at least, these elected officials have defied the will of the people with impunity because the issue is not high on the voters' list of priorities.
There appears to be a divide opening between conservatives and their elected officials as well. Despite the strong consensus among the people, an increasing number of elected Republicans can be seen spouting the misleading DPIC talking points and supporting repeal measures.
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