I’ll first repeat the question in the headline: Are the results of a recent Gallup survey showing the biggest swing to social conservatism in nearly a decade shocking, inevitable, or somewhere in the middle?

Whatever one calls it, it’s a major development — particularly with the 2024 election looming ever closer.

Before we dig into the details of the survey, let’s revisit a football field metaphor I’ve long used to illustrate the U.S. political landscape. The largest portion of the field — say, between the 30-yard lines, for illustrative purposes — is comprised of decent, reasonable people, regardless of political affiliation. The closer we get to the opposing goal lines, the more extreme each party becomes.

Presently, the crazy train leaves the station on the Democrat side of the field farther from its goal line than the crazy train on the Republican side of the field, but you get the overall point.

Given that reality, it’s not a stretch to suggest that the crazier the radical left gets, the greater the number of the aforementioned decent and rational people who begin to reject the left’s insanity — such as the irreversible mutilation of the bodies of confused pre-teen boys who think they’re girls, and vice versa.

Toss in “gender fluidity,” an ever-growing number of self-identifying pronouns, and Democrat lawmakers’ support of on-demand abortion until the moment of birth, and it hardly comes as a shock that Gallup recently found that a greater percentage of Americans in 2023 (38 percent) say they are “very conservative” or “conservative” on social issues than said the same in 2022 (33 percent) and 2021 (30 percent).

Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who say their social views are “very liberal” or “liberal” has dropped to 29 percent from 34 percent in each of the past two years, while the percentage identifying as “moderate” (31 percent) remains at roughly one-third.

Self-declared conservatives now outnumber self-declared liberals, according to the results of recent survey by Gallup. pic.twitter.com/kweJasKZWL

— MikesRight (@RealLibSmacker) June 8, 2023

Since 2021, according to the survey, the greatest shift has occurred among middle-aged adults (between the ages of 30 and 64), while older Americans’ views on social issues have remained virtually unchanged.

Among young adults, there has been a modest shift to conservative social ideology — which, although “modest,” any increase in conservative ideology among younger voters bodes well for the future as left-wing morality continues its slippery slide into the abyss.

As the Democrat Party lurches further to the left, the views of Americans move in the other direction. pic.twitter.com/MTgy2tQVaV

— MikesRight (@RealLibSmacker) June 8, 2023

The bottom line: According to the survey, conservatives now outnumber liberals 40 percent to 26 percent, with the overall percentage of voters who’ve moved to the right enjoying the biggest swing since 2012.

Gallup said on Thursday:

For most of the past eight years, Americans were about as likely to say they were liberal as conservative on social issues. This year, there is a more obvious conservative advantage.

The shift is mostly due to increasing social conservatism among Republicans, at a time when social issues such as transgender rights, abortion, and other hot-button concerns are prominent in the national public debate.

The increase in conservative identification on social issues over the past two years is seen among nearly all political and demographic subgroups. Republicans show one of the largest increases, from 60% in 2021 to 74% today.

Independents show a modest uptick of five percentage points, from 24% to 29%, while there has been no change among Democrats (10% in both 2021 and 2023).

You gotta love that last line: there has been no change among Democrats on social issues — 10 percent in both 2021 and 2023.

Let’s hope the Democrats not only continue their insanity but push their crazy train even farther down the crazy-train tracks. As the late Rush Limbaugh regularly said, the more we allow liberals to talk, the more they show us exactly who they are — and it behooves conservatives to expose them at every opportunity.

From the left’s support of male athletes who pretend to be females kicking the hell out of young women in women’s sports, to the self-anointed “party of children” voting in favor of on-demand abortion until the moment of birth (translation: murder), to defending the irreversible mutilation of pre-teen bodies (see: Joe Biden), is it any wonder that a growing number of non- left-wing Americans, including independents and swing voters, are moving back to the center? No.

And again, let’s hope the crazy train keeps hurtling farther and farther down the Democrat tracks.