Replies

"... the majority of Americans were pro-life, pro-gun rights, and anti-gay marriage."

Absolutely correct!
In addition, there were many other differences:

There was virtually no racial hatred between races... (Bigotry, yes. Mostly between Christians and Jews, Italians and Irish, Episcopalians and Catholics, Episcopalians and Jews, northerners and southerners, etc...);
Black families were more than 90%, two-parent families;
Negroes, mostly, voted Republican;
All males had to register for the draft;
Veterans & active servicemen were respected and supported;
The streets of Harlem in NYC were safe enough to sleep in an open car when too much alcohol was consumed;
Busloads of wetbacks brought thousands of workers to farms all across the midwest and busloads brought them back to Mexico when the crops were done;
90% of Americans wholeheartedly believed in the saying: "Better dead than red"
America had the Earth's finest public school system, controlled locally and beginning each day with the pledge of allegiance;
Virtually all schools, at least in the New England states, had gun clubs for boys and for girls;
During hunting seasons, guns were allowed to be brought to school and kept in your locker;
I got my driver's license at 12;
I got my first car at 10;
If you were sassy to a teacher, you got smacked by the teacher and reported to your parents (where you usually got smacked again);