Parties Trade Places in Culture Wars Over Rights Measures.

The uproar set off by legislation in Indiana and Arkansas that sponsors billed as religious freedom measures not only signaled a revival of the culture wars, but also threw into stark relief the expectations and tensions in the coalitions that now make up the two major political parties.

The contrasting reactions to the proposals — Democrats united in opposition, Republicans torn by dissent — illustrates how the parties have effectively traded places.

Democrats, for decades a heterogeneous and often fractious amalgam of voters, have become overwhelmingly liberal on cultural issues like gay rights and abortion. Their belief reflects a party now dominated by a socially progressive coalition of millennials, minorities and wealthy, educated whites, many of them secular.

This is the party of Barack Obama.

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