The Bigots are coming! The bigots are coming!

Charles Krauthammer explores (and explodes) the "Moral Values Myth":

The way the question was set up, moral values were sure to be ranked disproportionately high. Why? Because it was a multiple-choice question, and moral values cover a group of issues, while all the other choices were individual issues. Chop up the alternatives finely enough, and moral values are sure to get a bare plurality over the others.

Look at the choices:

• Education, 4 percent.

• Taxes, 5 percent.

• Health Care, 8 percent.

• Iraq, 15 percent.

• Terrorism, 19 percent.

• Economy and Jobs, 20 percent.

• Moral Values, 22 percent.

"Moral values" encompass abortion, gay marriage, Hollywood's influence, the general coarsening of the culture and, for some, the morality of preemptive war. The way to logically pit this class of issues against the others would be to pit it against other classes: "war issues" or "foreign policy issues" (Iraq plus terrorism) and "economic issues" (jobs, taxes, health care, etc).

If you pit group against group, the moral values class comes in dead last: war issues at 34 percent, economic issues variously described at 33 percent and moral values at 22 percent -- i.e., they are at least a third less salient than the others.

Pretty much my initial reaction when I saw the CNN poll.

Krauthammer specifically slams the canard that anti-gay bigotry by medieval-minded "Bigoted Christian Rednecks" put Bush in office:

In the 11 states in which the gay marriage referendums were held, Bush increased his vote by less than he did in the 39 states that did not have the referendum. The great anti-gay surge was pure fiction.

This does not deter the myth of the Bigoted Christian Redneck from dominating the thinking of liberals and infecting the blue-state media. They need their moral superiority like oxygen, and they cannot have it cut off by mere facts. Once again they angrily claim the moral high ground, while standing in the ruins of yet another humiliating electoral defeat.

I expect to be told for the next four years that I'm living under a fundamentalist, fascist theocracy which I helped create.

How foolish I was! Any day now, the Christian religious police will be coming to haul me off to one of the internment camps for homos, atheists, religious heretics, and neopagans!

May the immortal gods protect me!

MORE: Via InstaPundit, I see that M. Simon at Power and Control offers those the left maligns as "Bigoted Christian Rednecks" a polite warning from the Republican side, suggesting that it isn't nice to throw RINOs off the bus. I agree.

posted by Eric on 11.13.04 at 08:10 AM





TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/1715






Comments

According to the chart, the top issues for Kerry voters were Economy/Jobs [80%], Health Care [77%], Education [73%], and Iraq [73%]. In other words, they think the War in Iraq is nothing but a "quagmire" and that more government money should be spent on providing them with guaranteed jobs, free health care, free "progressive" education, etc..

The top issues for Bush voters, by contrast, were Terrorism [86%] and Moral Values [80%]. In other words, they want to fight and win the War Against the Terror Masters, they see the War as a moral issue of Good vs. Evil, Freedom vs. Slavery, and they want the President to see it the same way. Moral Values refers to a vast spectrum of issues, from integrity to religion to abortion to homosexuality and homosexual marriage, whether for or against.

Observe the inverse correlation here. 80% of Bush voters vs. 18% of Kerry voters see Moral Values as the top issue. 18% of Bush voters vs. 80% of Kerry voters see Economy/Jobs as the top issue. In other words, Kerry voters, Leftists, tend to see things in materialistic, economic, terms, while Bush voters, Rightists, tend to see things in spiritual, moral, terms.

Also, note that Terrorism was the most important issue [86%] for Bush voters, but the least important issue [14%] for Kerry voters. In other words, Bush voters believe that we are in a War for our very survival as a free nation and civilization, while Kerry voters seem to believe that we can somehow learn to "coexist" with terrorists.

Looking at this chart, therefore, makes me glad that Bush won, and glad that I voted for him, even though I disagree with him on some fundamental issues. I, too, am absolutely a "moral values" voter and thinker, on the Starboard side of this spectrum. My absolute values, my holy dogmas: Polytheistic Godliness, Selfishness, Sexiness.

I guess I was hoping to see someone defend the values that the Bush Administration ran on this election. Abortion. Gay marriage. Stem cell research. If the elections were not about values, I was hoping to see someone defend our track record in Iraq. Or the War on Terror. All three issues reflect negatively on our leader.

I think that, in the end, people voted for Bush because he provided "certainty," whereas Kerry offered "risk." This was not the election for risk. Even when the certainty is an extraordinarily negative future. Also, Steven: What the heck are you talking about?

bink   ·  November 13, 2004 08:42 PM

Charles K. doesn't think of adultery and fornication under "moral values." I do--rather soon--when hearing the phrase. The point is many of us are not preoccupied with homosexuality, and there is no inevitability that the phrase "moral values" will bring homosexuality to mind... west of the Hudson or outside the Beltway.
In connection with politics, it doesn't make me think "same-sex marriage," either. I can't seem to forget the pornographic ornaments on the Bill Clinton White House Christmas tree, reported by the FBI man, Aldridge. This year I also think of Hollywood, and Whoopie's big joke. Have you watched a soap opera lately??? Then maybe those three purple hearts without spending a day in the hospital--to me that was quite immoral, too. Somehow I typed Democrats as the "immoral" party years ago, and don't really need other reasons to vote against them. They are the ones who game all government systems, especially including the voting systems. There is no such thing as organized, wholesale vote fraud that helps the Republicans, but it is a way of life among Democrats. I'm not sure Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, when you allow for vote fraud in every major city, also among illegal aliens, newly naturalized citizens, and on the Indian reservations--that's pretty immoral, too.

LarryH   ·  November 14, 2004 12:20 AM


March 2007
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

ANCIENT (AND MODERN)
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR


Search the Site


E-mail




Classics To Go

Classical Values PDA Link



Archives




Recent Entries



Links



Site Credits