- Gay marriage: Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defined marriage as between a man and a women, and allowed states to discriminate against same sex couples. It was deemed unconstitutional by the supreme court in 2015. Gay people were banned from being in the military. Bill Clinton managed to throw a think veil on the law by enacting the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. That policy was repealed in 2010, and a federal court ruled ban of gay people from a military unconstitutional in 2011.
- Climate change: The percentage of Americans who say dealing with global climate change should be a priority for the president and the congress increased from 30% in 2008 to 52% in 2020.
- Abortion: in 2019, about 61% of Americans say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The percentage of people with this view grew from 63% in 2007 to 82% in 2019 among democrats, while it remained about the same among republicans.
- Evolution: A growing percentage of high school teachers teach Evolution as a broad consensus among scientists. The proportion grew from 51% in 2007 to 67% in 2019.
- Immigration: The percentage of Americans who say legal immigration should be increased went up from 10% in 2001 to 32% in 2018 and the percentage who say it should be decreased went down from 53% in 2001 to 24% in 2018. 74% of Americans support giving a legal status to undocumented people brought to the United States as children. About 10% of eligible voters in 2020 were naturalized citizens.
- Health care: About 60% of Americans consistently held the viewpoint that it is the government's responsibility to ensure health care for all and support for a single payer system has grown from 59% in 2019 to 63% in 2020.
In all of the above cases, republicans are in the minority.
