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| America's values |
| 11.03.04 (3:47 pm) [edit] |
|
I am a generally optimistic and hopeful person, willing to give the benefit of the doubt and look for the best of possibilities; but all that was crushed last night. Bush's victory shows that there is a very skewed view of what is important and what is valued in America. And this is something that I am afraid cannot be easily changed. There will likely be much analysis in the days to come of what exactly caused the defeat of John Kerry. Things to be examined might include the impact of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads, the attack on John Kerry as being a flip-flopper and weak on security, the approval rating of Bush's handling of the War on Terror, the lack of a cohesive message from the Democratic Party, or the bin Laden tape released that likely rallied Bush supporters. And while each of those things merits evaluation, I think the single determining factor in this election was who atually voted. As [url=http://therealspartacus0 07.tb...]therealspartacus007[/url ] pointed out,the most important issue, according to exit polls, seemed to many to be [b]moral values[/b]. Moral values. Not the war in Iraq, not the economy, not the war on terror (though that ranked second in terms of importance), not domestic issues, but moral values shaped this election. I would speculate that this is not because most Americans actually perceive moral values to be the most important issue our nation faces, but because the bloc of voters who do see moral values as dominant were the most mobilized. Only about 10% of the electorate was comprised of first-time voters, the same as four years ago. The majority of the youth that did vote was for Kerry. But I believe that a majority of the other 90% of voters was made up of those who were clearly mobilized based on their faith. So what does this mean? Is it a bad thing that moral values were ranked the number one issue in this election? I believe that this signifies the direction of America's future as well as the importance of mobilizing voters. I do think that selecting our president based on the issue of moral values is a bad thing. But don't get me wrong- I am all for moral behavior and a strong supporter of ethics. However, I sense that the vast majority of voters has a skewed perception of most moral issues. And that is basically that they view issues such as gay marriage and abortion solely as moral issues, thus neglecting the importance of individual rights. The fact that the majority of those who voted in this year's election did so based on who they beleived expressed the strongest moral values. But I don't believe that "moral values" actually relates to [i]all[/i] moral values, but primarily those that comply with Christian beliefs, such as protecting traditional marriage and fighting for life (in other words, banning same-sex couples from marrying and denying women the right to choose). I don't know that it is possible to convince those who view these issues based on their faith and what they personally perceive to be moral that there are other aspects to the issues, and that forcing the entire nation to comply to [b]their[/b] morality isn't exactly supporting freedom. Abortion is not simply a battle between those who believe it to be immoral and those who support murdering babies. The real debate should lie in constitutionality, but it doesn't. The President, as well as many other politicians, has used abortion and gay marriage as political tools. President Bush appealed to the faith of his supporters and undecideds to make gay marriage a moral issue. All eleven states that voted on proposed amendments to their state's constitution banning gay marriage passed them. I would wager that most voters who supported these bans did so based on what they see as a moral issue. I'll agree that there is a moral aspect to the issue of gay marriage- but that is not the only aspect, nor is it the most important when it comes to legislation. It would seem that many Americans hope to negate the separation of church and state and assert their Christian values. Giving the government the power to determine our own morals is incredibly dangerous. I have a feeling this will be grudgingly understood in the years to come. The Republican Party now has control over the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and soon Bush will be given the power to appoint Supreme Court Justice(s). President Bush will be leading based on a moral agenda. This agenda is in contrast to the true values of America, I believe, and those are the values of freedom, liberty, justice, individual rights, and equality. In essence, I think things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get any better. If they get better. |
| 14 Comments |
