The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

836 Chapter 31 From Boomers to Millennials

2004 Massachusetts was the first state to recognize
same-sex marriage; within the next five years, a half
dozen states passed similar laws. When Washington,
DC approved a same-sex marriage law, the Catholic
Archdiocese of Washington, DC protested the deci-
sion by revising health care benefits of its agencies to
avoid covering same-sex couples. But by 2010,
according to most opinion polls, a solid majority of
Americans favored same-sex marriage. And by a hefty
margin, Millennials were far more likely to endorse
same-sex marriage than any other age group, includ-
ing Boomers.

Crime and Punishment

Civil rights protesters who intentionally violated
laws rather than work within the law to change it;
feminists who flouted conventional gender roles and
asserted a right to abortion; gays and lesbians who

claimed a right to serve openly in the military and

enter into same-sex marriages—all were evidence, at

least in the opinion of some, that the nation had

lost its moral bearings. Such misgivings had spiked

in the late 1960s, as antiwar protests closed down

college campuses and race riots ravaged cities.

Violent crime increased. Many called for restoration

of “law and order.” The phrase had been used

repeatedly by Nixon and Agnew, whose own trou-

bles with the law caused the phrase to temporarily

slip from view. But during the 1970s and 1980s

conservative activists, borrowing strategies from

activist movements on the left, succeeded in imple-

menting many of the goals of the “law and order”

movement. They elected officials who passed

tougher laws, hired more police, and built addi-

tional prisons.

The shift toward capital punishment was symp-

tomatic. During the 1960s only a handful of crimi-

nals were executed. When the Supreme Court ruled

Narcotics policemen in Bridgeport, Connecticut, arrest a suspect for selling crack near housing projects in 1994.