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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's annual measurement of how Americans describe their views on social issues finds social liberals nearly tying with social conservatives for the fifth straight year. This is a change from 2001 through 2012 when social conservatives had the clear lead, including by 17-percentage-point margins in 2009 and 2010.

In Gallup's latest update, conducted May 3-7, 34% of Americans describe their views as conservative or very conservative while 30% identify as liberal or very liberal. Another 34% call themselves moderate and 2% are unsure. Gallup measures Americans' ideology on social issues annually as part of its Values and Beliefs survey, conducted each May.

Democrats' Fueling Rise in Social Liberalism

The increase in social liberalism has not been universal, but has occurred mainly among Democrats. The percentage of Democrats describing themselves as socially liberal increased fairly steadily from 36% in 2001 to 53% 2015 where it has since held.

By contrast, Republicans' propensity to identify as socially liberal has hardly changed, consistently registering around 10%.

In order to see whether the liberal shift in Democrats' social views is universal within the Democratic ranks, or limited to certain subgroups, Gallup has grouped its annual data into four time periods, allowing for larger sample sizes to evaluate the trends in Democratic subgroups. The earliest time period is from 2001 through 2005 when an average 37% of Democrats identified as socially liberal. The most recent period is from 2015 to 2017 when the figure held at 53%.

As shown in the accompanying table, social liberalism has risen among all major demographic subgroups of Democrats, as well as in the four main regions of the country. However, there are some notable differences:

Democrats' Views on Social Issues -- % Liberal

Implications

The increase in social liberalism in the U.S. seen since the early 2000s is the result of increasing liberalism among Democrats, and particularly among white, more-educated and older Democrats. The changes by age mean that various age groups of Democrats are now in greater political alignment. However, the changes by education and race have widened the divide on social issues between Democrats with and without college degrees, as well as between white and black Democrats.

This doesn't necessarily mean Democrats are at odds with each other. Indeed, despite the widening gaps along race and education lines, 89% of Democrats supported the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 2016. However, as Democratic leaders debate how to redefine the party post-President Barack Obama these data suggest that moving any further to the left on social issues could risk alienating Democrats with lower levels of education.

Those are the kinds of voters President Donald Trump might try to attract in a second-term bid, particularly if his GOP base is faltering. On the other hand, with most of these lesser-educated Democrats describing themselves as moderate on social issues rather than conservative, that would be a hard sell.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.

The latest national results are based on telephone interviews conducted May 3-7, 2017, with a random sample of 1,011 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Result based on combined years have larger sample sizes

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

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Social Liberals Nearly Tie Social Conservatives in U.S. | Gallup - Gallup

The United States is evolving into a one-party country; that being Republican with support from independents and pro-Trump Democrats. The once proud party that cared for and supported the working middle-class, union workers and minorities, has decimated long-standing traditions and plunged itself into a sewer of antipathy and vulgarity. They sail merrily and rudderless toward the insanity of the ultra-left, socialism and political correctness.

It has become a party of destruction, hypocrisy, hate and obstruction. There is no denying that. And there is no end in sight. In a few short months, we will be blessed with the mid-term elections where Republicans will win a super-majority in the Senate. Contributors to the Democrats will be pouring millions of dollars into slimy, snarky attack ads.

All the self-centered, malignantly narcissistic celebrities will return spewing their vile hatred and morbid sophomoric soliloquies. I imagine we will even see our former president and former secretary of state on the stump for the liberals.

None of that mattered in 2016 and certainly will not matter in 2018. To make matters worse, the liberal virus appears to have infected a few Republicans who have concluded their egos are more important than their loyalty to the country, the president and our Grand Old Party.

I am comforted however, with the knowledge that time wounds all heels.

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Letter: Liberals infecting GOP - Quad City Times

Checks are being made to see if Chisholm MP Julia Banks has Greek citizenship. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

The Liberal party says it has been given confirmation by the Greek embassy that the Victorian Liberal lower house MP, Julia Banks, is not a dual citizen, and has no entitlement to citizenship.

The confirmation came after questions were raised about whether Banks may have had Greek citizenship conferred on her a development which could have triggered a by-election in the seat of Chisholm.

Earlier on Friday, Liberal sources told Guardian Australia the state party organisation in Victoria was agitated about Banks potentially having a dual citizenship, and checks were being made on her status.

Speaking to Guardian Australia on Friday from London, the Victorian Liberal MP said she was born in Australia, her parents were Australian citizens at the time of her birth and she had never taken up Greek citizenship.

Those facts notwithstanding checks were made to ensure she had not acquired Greek citizenship by descent.

Late on Friday, a spokesman for the Liberal party issued a statement saying Banks was in the clear. We have received confirmation from the Greek embassy that according to records, Julia Banks is not registered as a Greek citizen and also is not entitled as a Greek citizen.

Guardian Australia has contacted the Greek embassy for confirmation.

The question mark over Banks followed a tumultuous week where the resources minister, Matt Canavan, stepped down from Cabinet because he discovered he was a dual citizen of Italy, and serious questions remain about the status of the One Nation senator, Malcolm Roberts.

The government is already facing a high court proceeding over one of its lower house MPs, David Gillespie, with concerns he may have an indirect financial interest in the Commonwealth, which, like dual citizenship, is grounds for disqualification under section 44 of the constitution.

There will be a directions hearing on the Gillespie case in August, with substantive hearings expected before the end of the year.

The Turnbull government holds a majority in the lower house of just one seat.

Banks won her seat of Chisholm against the political tide from Labor at the last federal election, and Liberals fear the government would not have held the seat at a by-election in the current political climate.

Once parliament resumes in August after the winter break, the Senate will refer the cases of Canavan and the two Green senators, Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, who resigned after discovering they held dual citizenships, to the high court for deliberation.

If no one challenges Robertss eligibility in the meantime, it is possible that either the government, or Labor, the Greens and some cross benchers, could also move to refer the One Nation senator to the high court as well.

Government sources have suggested it is unlikely they would join Roberts to the other cases, given it would be provocative. Labor is yet to determine its position on that as a course of action.

The Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he would support referring Roberts to the high court. We are going to refer Scott and Larissa, and One Nation should also do the decent thing and refer Malcolm Roberts.

He said in the event One Nation failed to do the decent thing, the Greens would happily join Labor and any interested crossbenchers in sending Roberts case to the court.

NXT leader Nick Xenophon told Guardian Australia on Friday he was also open to referring Roberts to the high court in the event constitutional law experts thought there were valid questions for him to answer.

Xenophon said such a referral should not happen carelessly but it should certainly happen if there was any prospect of a constitutional breach.

Roberts has changed his story about dual citizenship on a couple of occasions, but he told Sky News on Thursday he had written to British officials on 1 May last year asking if he was a UK citizen.

After not getting a reply, he wrote again on 6 June, just before Senate nominations closed, saying if he had British citizenship, he fully renounced it. Ive taken all steps that I reasonably believe necessary, Roberts told Sky News.

But it has emerged the British high commission did not confirm the renunciation until December six months after he nominated as a Senate candidate.

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Liberal Party confirms Victoria MP Julia Banks is not a Greek citizen - The Guardian

Washington Times

Liberals, conservatives jointly decry university 'safe spaces' Washington Times Celebrities and Congress members decried free speech crackdowns, such as the University of California, Berkeley canceling Ann Coulter's appearance. (Associated Press) more >. Print. By Emma Ayers - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 27, 2017. Adam Carolla on College Snowflakes: 'We Need the Adults to Start Being Adults'YouTube all 27 news articles »

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Liberals, conservatives jointly decry university 'safe spaces' - Washington Times

OTTAWA -- The federal infrastructure bank is many months away from opening its doors, but Liberals have given a group of civil servants the power to fast-track approval of projects for private funding well in advance.

The officials are now on the verge of handing in their secret evaluations of the projects, along with any recommendations about how to use public funds to quickly pull in private dollars to pay for construction.

The government says the infrastructure bank advisory group has not sent any projects up the ladder for cabinet approval.

Rather, internal documents suggest the goal of the group is to avoid any delays in project approvals and show some early wins for the new bank, which has faced controversy.

Initially, the infrastructure financing agency was expected to be doling out money by this fall, but bureaucratic snags mean it won't be fully operational until the end of the year.

The Liberals hope that the bank can use $35 billion in public funds to pry three to four times as much in private investment to fund infrastructure projects around the country.

The Liberals asked the advisory group to review projects that could go to the new infrastructure bank, and provide options to cabinet for private funding "to ensure that no delays occur on near-term infrastructure projects," the documents state.

"In cases where a project is sufficiently advanced to proceed prior to the establishment of the (infrastructure bank), the advisory group will provide recommendationson options for federal support to leverage private sector investment," read the terms of reference for the group, which The Canadian Press obtained under the Access to Information Act.

A spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi said the group has not sent cabinet any financing recommendations. Any work will be transferred to bank officials once the agency is up and running, Brook Simpson said, including reviews of a high-profile transit project in Montreal.

The Liberals have also hired outside experts to review the business case for the 67-kilometre, electric-rail transit project in Montreal, known by its French acronym REM.

"The advisory group reviewed a number of projects to see if private capital investment would be possible. Among these was the REM project in Montreal," Simpson said.

"The due diligence that the advisory group did on this project will be transferred to the bank once it is operational and the bank will then decide if an investment is appropriate in place of traditional grant funding."

In June, the Liberals pledged $1.28 billion towards construction of the $6 billion project overseen by the provincial pension program, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the funding, he said REM would be eligible for private sector financing through the infrastructure bank. If that were to happen, it would free up some of the $1.28 billion for other provincial projects.

In June, the Liberals were able to get parliamentary approval for the agency despite questions about the financial risk for taxpayers, and how public dollars could be used to provide a loss buffer to private investors.

In early July, the Liberals named Janice Fukakusa, a former chief financial officer for Royal Bank, as the agency's inaugural chairwoman.

Simpson said a CEO and the remaining board members will be appointed in the coming months, as well as the launch of staff recruitment for the agency's offices in Toronto.

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Liberals allow fast-track system for infrastructure bank approvals - BNN