Republicans are often accused by the media and Democrats of moving "too far to the right" and becoming a party that "not even Ronald Reagan would be welcomed to," but a new Gallup poll shows it's the left that has shifted to the extreme over the past 15 years.
Democratic candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination face a significantly more left-leaning party base than their predecessors did over the last 15 years. Forty-seven percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents now identify as both socially liberal and economically moderate or liberal. This is compared with 39% in these categories in 2008, when there was last an open seat for their party's nomination, and 30% in 2001.
The trends for the entire country show a shift toward more liberal self-identification, and that trend is even more pronounced among Democrats on social issues. More than half of Democrats (53%) describe themselves as socially liberal at this point, up from 35% in 2001.
Meanwhile, while Democrats have shifted left on social issues the country has shifted right on the issues of abortion and gun control.
One clear cut example of how the Democrat Party has become increasingly liberal (and fascist) surrounds the Freedom of Religion Restoration Act, which was cosponsored by Democrat Chuck Schumer and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 16, 1993. The law holds the government to a high burden before religious liberty can be infringed.
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"We all have a shared desire here to protect perhaps the most precious of all American liberties, religious freedom. Usually the signing of legislation by a President is a ministerial act, often a quiet ending to a turbulent legislative process. Today this event assumes a more majestic quality because of our ability together to affirm the historic role that people of faith have played in the history of this country and the constitutional protections those who profess and express their faith have always demanded and cherished," Clinton said at the time. “Let us never believe that the freedom of religion imposes on any of us some responsibility to run from our convictions. Let us instead respect one another’s faith."
Last year, when an Indiana baker said she wouldn't bake a cake for a gay wedding because doing so would violate her Christian beliefs, Democrats called for a repeal of the legislation.
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