“Public opinion on same-sex marriage has shifted so dramatically in recent years that Democratic groups now see the issue as a critical way to mobilize voters in a slew of races up and down the ballot,” the Washington Post reports.

“Just a decade ago, widespread opposition to gay marriage did just the opposite, allowing Karl Rove to mobilize conservatives in 13 states and help reelect George W. Bush as president.”

A new Gallup poll finds 65% of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s system of government and how well it works, the highest percentage in Gallup’s trend since 2001.

A new Gallup poll finds just 23% of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. at this time, unchanged from December and within one percentage point of the 24% average for 2013.

Wonk Wire notes the dramatic fall off in cigarette consumption over the past 50 years.

Gallup: “Americans continue to be more likely to identify as conservatives (38%) than as liberals (23%). But the conservative advantage is down to 15 percentage points as liberal identification edged up to its highest level since Gallup began regularly measuring ideology in the current format in 1992.”

A new Gallup poll finds 42% of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest measured in 25 years. Meanwhile, Republican identification fell to 25%, the lowest over that time span. At 31%, Democratic identification is unchanged from the last four years but down from 36% in 2008.

The Week: 4 reasons our political dysfunction isn’t going to end soon.

A new Pew Research survey finds that 60% of Americans say that “humans and other living things have evolved over time,” while 33% reject the idea of evolution, saying that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.”

Most interesting: “In 2009, 54% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats said humans have evolved over time, a difference of 10 percentage points. Today, 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say humans have evolved, a 24-point gap.”

A new Gallup poll finds President Obama and Hillary Clinton are the most admired man and woman in America by large margins for the sixth consecutive year.

“The gender gap is alive and well in American politics. Indeed, it may be the defining characteristic of our political system as next year’s midterm elections beckon,” Gerald Seib writes.

“We’re not talking here just about the well-established pattern in which women are more likely to vote Democratic and men Republican in presidential elections. That’s true, but it appears to be only the tip of a gender-gap iceberg.”

“On virtually all the hot-button issues that bedevil Washington today–guns, health, how to fix the economy, the state of the Obama presidency–the difference between men and women is striking. And it all adds up to a large difference in what men and women prefer in next year’s congressional elections.”

A new AP-GfK survey finds only one-third of Americans say most people can be trusted. Half felt that way in 1972, when the General Social Survey first asked the question.

Forty years later, a record high of nearly two-thirds say “you can’t be too careful” in dealing with people.

National Journal:
“Colorado is back as a national bellwether. Earlier this year, a
Democratic-led push to enact stricter gun-control measures cost two
state senators their jobs and tarnished once-popular Gov. John
Hickenlooper’s bipartisan sheen. Last week, voters overwhelmingly
rejected a sweeping measure to raise the state’s income tax. And now,
Hickenlooper is in a fight with some of his core supporters over a ban
on a process of natural-gas drilling known as ‘fracking.’ … Taken
together, the moves are a course correction for a state that seemed to
be drifting inexorably to the left. And they’ve caught the attention of
the Democrats up for reelection in 2014, Hickenlooper and Sen. Mark
Udall, both of whom have begun plotting their own paths back toward the
political center.”

A new ABC News/Fusion Poll finds an “almost unfathomable gap” in public attitudes on basic issues
involving gender, race, religion and politics in America.

“The gaps in nearly all cases are largest among partisan and ideological groups – so enormous and so fundamental that they seem to constitute visions of two distinctly different Americas.”

Nate Cohn: “We’ve reached the point where there should be no surprise if a major national politician embraces marijuana legalization. Without any large-scale campaign on its behalf, surveys show that approximately half of Americans now support marijuana legalization, including 58 percent in a recent, but potentially outlying, Gallup poll. Regardless of the exact support today, marijuana is all but assured to emerge as an issue in national elections–it’s only a question of how and when.”

A new Gallup Poll finds that a majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana — by a 58% to 39% margin

A new Pew Research survey finds just 19% of Americans say that they trust the government in Washington to do what is right just about always or most of the time, down seven points since January.

Key findings: “The share of the public saying they are angry at the federal government, which equaled an all-time high in late September (26%), has ticked up to 30%. Another 55% say they are frustrated with the government. Just 12% say they are basically content with the federal government.”

A new Pew Research survey finds the Tea Party “is less popular than ever, with even many Republicans now viewing the movement negatively. Overall, 49% of the public has an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party, while 30% have a favorable opinion.”

“The Tea Party’s favorability rating has fallen across most groups since June, but the decline has been particularly dramatic among moderate and liberal Republicans. In the current survey, just 27% of moderate and liberal Republicans have a favorable impression of the Tea Party, down from 46% in June.”

A new Esquire-NBC News survey “shows us that everything we are told about politics in America today–that there is no middle ground between left and right, blue and red, us and them–is wrong… there is a large group of American voters–even a majority–who make up a New American Center that is passionate, persuadable, and very real. They are merely waiting for Washington to find them.”

Take the quiz to find out where you are on the political spectrum.