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A
MERICANS ARE SHARPLY DIVIDED ON THE QUESTION OF WHETHER TO
allow gay and lesbian couples to marry: a 2012 Pew Trust poll found that
48 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, while 44 percent are
opposed.^1 Moreover, there is a sharp partisan split in opinions, as 65 percent of
Democrats are supportive of same-sex marriage rights, while only 24 percent
of Republicans feel the same way. Similar divisions can be found in many other
areas, from opinions about specifi c policies such as President Obama’s health
care reforms to broader questions such as whether America is divided into
“haves” and “have nots.”^2
Such polling date gives rise to two questions. First, can common ground be
found given the apparently profound disagreements? Some people look at opinion
data on issues such as same-sex marriage and see a “culture war” in which
Americans are divided into opposing camps across a range of issues, with secular
Democrats facing off against religious Republicans.^3 We have said throughout
this book that politics is confl ictual and that compromise is often necessary to get
anything done in Washington, D.C. But if most Americans hold extreme positions
on many policy questions and are unwilling to compromise, it is hard to see how
politicians can get anything done, unless they are willing to offend large segments
of the population—and risk losing their positions in the next election. Moreover,
when Americans are divided, as in the case of single-sex marriage, it may be
impossible to fi nd a policy option that satisfi es even a majority of the population,
so no matter what politicans do, majority dissatisfaction is virtually guaranteed.SHOULD SAME-SEX COUPLES BE
allowed to marry? Americans
are almost evenly split on this
question, making it diffi cult to fi nd
a compromise. However, public
opinion also changes over time,
so an issue that is sharply divisive
today may become easier to
resolve as opinions shift.