In about 20-30 years...

[Wolfentoad]

What will be the hot social issue? Polygamy, prostitution?

[Senator Snowstalker]

Probably still abortion; same-sex marriage will be a non-issue.

[Wolfentoad]

I'm surprised Abortion is still an issue. It was decided 40 years ago. People are ALWAYS going to have abortions, so we may as well make it safe for people to do so.

[The Ex-Factor]

Robotic modifications/human cloning/social engineering.

[Comrade Shmoo]

Abortion.

[Beet]

Polygamy.

[後援会]

Probably still abortion; same-sex marriage will be a non-issue.

This. I also think religion in the public sphere will be a serious issue. And affirmative action may flare up as an issue and start dying off as highly educated immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa (and their high-performing children) start making affirmative action look ridiculous.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Probably abortion....and that may always be an issue. Cloning will become a starter issue as well as drug reform. We could see conservatives wanting to start using "genetic discrimination by another name" as a way reduce health care costs and security risks and we might see a  big debate on "Gattica-like genetic counseling" and "gene therapy" being the new "going back to school to get a  better job". Another  issue may be on whether the right to privacy covers all sex between consenting adults which is not "legitimately" non-consentual or violent. ie polygamy, prostitution and any other acts of "misdemeanor sodomy" . Or that one might have to wait 40 or 50 years instead of 20 or 30. Cases have come before the SCOTUS like this in the 70s and none of the justices were impressed. Perhaps under difference reasoning, SCOTUS could change its mind.

I could see segregation or Jim Crow by another name coming up too. There already remains quite a bit of latent segregation throughout the Deep South and the "Republican West" and there seems to be a new push for voter ID laws that seem to be poll taxes by another name.

In terms of AI, we will probably know wheter "strong AI" is possible and feasible in another 20 years. If the case is yes, there are already some cultural conservatives who think that creating and possessing  such technology is a sin akin to abortion or homosexuality because it violates the sanctity or human life or makes "natural living" more difficult. ie "it will lead to an autism pandemic when people start using machines to live with one another'.

Another issue could be whether there are such thing as non-human persons. Then again, this may be another issue that might have to wait another 20 or 30 years. This would probably come up with "intelligent" machines or even more remotely, extraterrestrials.

[Statesman]

The economy, abortion and how to handle the end of the War on Drugs, which is being scaled down after being recognized as having been a failure for 30-40 years, and transitioning the US to single payer universal health care. Same-sex marriage will be legal in all fifty states, and marijuana will be legal for adults in most states, and will no longer be a Schedule I substance as listed by the Feds.

The economy will be in healthier shape than now, though questions will persist on how to move it forward faster. A comprehensive single payer health care system introduced in 2029 will greatly help the poor and middle class still without coverage, and will reduce health care costs. Glass-Stegall will have been re-implemented in 2025, after a recession and financial industry bailout in 2020.

Abortion will remain controversial, though the number of pro-choice will outnumber those pro-life by 55-45, and those count themselves as pro-life will be more moderate and will largely support exceptions in the case of rape or incest, and not Todd Akin's position.

Same-sex marriage is hardly controversial, with 80% of people supporting it. Same-sex marriage becomes legal in all fifty states in 2025.

The end of the War on Drugs will finally have allowed marijuana to become legal 45 of 50 states by 2037, with 70% of adults supporting ending prohibition. With the War on Drugs ending, controversy remains on whether to legalize and regulate heroin and cocaine, or to keep them illegal but not actively try to stop trafficking and switching to a treatment-based rather than penalty-based criteria for dealing with harder drugs.

Presidents:
44 - Barack Obama (D-IL) 1/20/2009 - 1/20/2017
45 - Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) 1/20/2017 - 1/20/2021 (narrowly defeated for re-election)
46 - Marco Rubio (R-FL) 1/20/2021 - 1/20/2025 (lost re-election, similar margin to 1992)
47 - Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) 1/20/2025 - 1/20/2033
48 - Julian Castro (D-TX) 1/20/2033 - 1/20/2041

Vice Presidents:
47 - Joe Biden (D-DE) 1/20/2009 - 1/20/2017
48 - Sherrod Brown (D-OH) 1/20/2017 - 1/20/2021
49 - Bobby Jindal (R-LA) 1/20/2021 - 1/20/2025
50 - Julian Castro (D-TX) 1/20/2025 - 1/20/2033
51 - Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) 1/20/2033 - 1/20/2041

The 2040 election will be between Vice President Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) and Senator George P. Bush (R-TX)

[Is JCL in mushy sappy love]

Abortion will be criminalized in most states. Most states will have passed gay marriage bans via direct vote of the people. Weed will be decriminalized in many states

[Supersonic]

Robotic modifications/human cloning/social engineering.

This.

Abortion will still be an issue.

Things like citizenship for artificial intelligence and stuff like that, 'genetic/cybernetic enhancements' and how they relate to morality, will probably come to the fore around the 2040's. (All rather Deus Ex)

Abortion will be criminalized in most states. Most states will have passed gay marriage bans via direct vote of the people. Weed will be decriminalized in many states

This is already the case, and by the 2040's the Supreme Court will probably have invalidated them anyway. That's just the way it is.

[Is JCL in mushy sappy love]

Robotic modifications/human cloning/social engineering.

This.

Abortion will still be an issue.

Things like citizenship for artificial intelligence and stuff like that, 'genetic/cybernetic enhancements' and how they relate to morality, will probably come to the fore around the 2040's. (All rather Deus Ex)

Abortion will be criminalized in most states. Most states will have passed gay marriage bans via direct vote of the people. Weed will be decriminalized in many states

This is already the case, and by the 2040's the Supreme Court will probably have invalidated them anyway. That's just the way it is.

Said court upholds the state votes thus it's banned in most states.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Is anyone particularly concerned about a potential slippery slope if one side did win the abortion debate? (Roe gets enshired as Federal Law vs. Roe is overturned and abortion becomes generally less available than it is in the average mature nation-state).

[State Comptroller Atkins]

Abortion will be criminalized in most states. Most states will have passed gay marriage bans via direct vote of the people. Weed will be decriminalized in many states

If the country is more reactionary on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage then it will also be more reactionary on the issue of weed.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Abortion will be criminalized in most states. Most states will have passed gay marriage bans via direct vote of the people. Weed will be decriminalized in many states

If the country is more reactionary on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage then it will also be more reactionary on the issue of weed.

We all could be in jail in 20 years...

[Is JCL in mushy sappy love]

Abortion will be criminalized in most states. Most states will have passed gay marriage bans via direct vote of the people. Weed will be decriminalized in many states

If the country is more reactionary on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage then it will also be more reactionary on the issue of weed.

Not nessasarily.

[後援会]

Abortion will be criminalized in most states. Most states will have passed gay marriage bans via direct vote of the people. Weed will be decriminalized in many states

If the country is more reactionary on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage then it will also be more reactionary on the issue of weed.

Not nessasarily.

These three issues move...very differently. Namely, support for same-sex marriage and support for marijuana decriminalization have exploded in the past years (with the young being far more supportive than their parents).

There have been almost no change in abortion attitudes. If there has been, it has been slightly in favor of the pro-life side (although it's such a small movement, I'd classify it as statistically insignificant).

The idea of abortion being outlawed in 20 years is extremely unlikely (read: almost impossible). But it's very likely that abortion laws in 20 years will probably be somewhat stricter. Simply because current abortion law in the USA is still more lenient in most states than what the vast majority of Americans want.

[Governor Maxwell]

At least socially, it seems that the nation is becoming more and more liberal, as I see it, and social conservativism in national politics is in its kicking and screaming death throes.

I believe that gay marriage and marijuana will be legalized in about that much time.

The kicking and screaming on abortion, however, will continued for a century I think.