(or let me try to construct this survey better)
Four issues are frequently cited in the media, by individuals and here at dKos as having cost Democrats votes in elections, both in 2004 and those in prior years. Every issue is going to gain or lose votes for Democrats and Republicans, but I only want to focus on these four in this Diary. I'm not interested in whether or not you think these four cost us votes. For the purposes of this survey, assume that they do.
Historically, all of these issues, as currently constructed, are somewhat recent origin. The oldest of the four is God. That one has been with us since the 19th Century. The current variant of it surfaced in organized form with the Moral Majority, formed in 1979 and a political force in 1980 (dissolved in 1989 and supplanted by the Christian Coalition). Guns beginning in the 1960's when the movement to ban certain types of guns more or less began (machine guns were banned decades earlier without any political ramifications). Abortion also began during that period, but in that case it was the movement to legalize them rather than banning them. It only became a hot political issue when rightwing "Christians" became somewhat politically organized which I would date at around 1980. The issue of equality for Gays also began in the 1960s with Stonewall. The first time it became an obvious political issue was in 1992 but may have only become a "hot issue" in 2004.
While all of these issues may have roots in racism and the legal advances made in civil rights in the 1960s, I would argue that only the most hardcore racists recognize that in these issues today. As such, those people will never vote Democratic and therefore, should not be of interest to us in focusing on these four issues. I would also argue that these four issues are not independent of each other for a high percentage of voters who cite them as their rationale for voting GOP. However, while there is considerable overlap of these issues for voters, there are voters for whom only one of these four issues is primary and the other three would never rise to that level for them. Those are the voters that Democrats could potentially capture if not for our position on one of these issues.
Which one of these four issues do you think holds the greatest potential for capturing additional net votes if the Democratic Party changes its position on it? (Note: the question says "net votes" - if the change picks up one current GOP voter but loses one current DEM voter nothing has been gained.) How would you change the Democratic Party position on the issue you have selected to change? ("Reframing" IMO on any one of these four issues is not sufficient - Rove and the GOP can counter even the best of reframing on these, and let's be honest, the Democratic Party sucks at window dressing reframing.) I'm also interested in your rationale for your selection and what such a change would mean for the political philosophy of the Democratic Party on a go-forward basis.