Sleeper Social Issues

Newsweek is running an article, picked up by Wonkette, which makes reference to "[A] host of sleeper social issues, including abortion, same-sex marriage, and stem-cell research..." which will play a key role in the upcoming elections.

I love the concept of general human rights as "sleeper social issues". You know, the right to decide what happens to your body and who you marry. Whatever. Minor issue.

Methinks maybe some of us are putting a leetle less emphasis on these issues than we should be. Most worrying is knowing that for a lot of people, the loss of their rights won't be noticed until it's almost too late in the game to do anything about it.