Poll: Majority supports gay marriage (and opposes abortion)

Here’s yet another poll, this one by CBS and The Wall Street Journal, showing just how greatly the tides have turned in only a few short years:

Two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two highly publicized gay-marriage cases, a majority of Americans continue to say they support same-sex marriage, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Fifty-three percent of respondents favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, which is up 2 points since the NBC/WSJ survey last asked this question in December, though that increase is within the poll’s margin of error.

It’s kind of awesome how ho-hum these polls are getting already.

And now to sour the mood:

According to the survey, a combined 52 percent say that abortion should be illegal either with exceptions or without them, versus a combined 45 percent who say it should be legal either “always” or “most of the time.”

This is a reversal from the NBC/WSJ poll in January, when a majority – for the first time – said abortion should be legal in some form or fashion.

I guess this means we can’t really trust the hoi polloi to decide who gets to enjoy basic civil rights or not after all.