Posted on 11/18/2007 2:18:08 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
ISN'T IT GREAT to know that the Republican candidates for president are all hopped up about moral values?
In presentations to conservative voters in Florida at the "Value Voter Summit," major presidential hopefuls Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani each sought to outscore their opponents on those matters that so exercise the hearts and minds of the evangelicals.
It's intriguing to see how these anxious social conservatives (and their candidates on that day) define values. Their big four issues are abortion, gay rights, religious liberalism and gun control.
These "no, no, no, no" positions that stress the pinched minds of the social right-wing are not very high up on my scale of basic human values. They are certainly quite different from the ethical issues I learned about in church or taught about in my ethics classes.
I continue to be astounded that so many people essentially ignore what to most of us are the universal moral issues of the day: war and peace, environmental decay, poverty, the growing gap between the rich and poor, health-care, and ethnic and gender equality.
It is always a wonderment to me that anyone who has grown up in a culture that created and then revered the values proclaimed in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution can be so anguished by what to most of us are simply issues of private morality.
In spite of all the lip service the "value" voters pay to their religious beliefs, I rarely see any kind of thought or action based on the justice and equity imperatives that stem from the Judeo-Christian tradition.
The injunctions in both the Hebrew bible and the New Testament to love and care for the neighbor and to seek justice in everyday life define morality in a quite different fashion from Florida's modern day "value voters".
And it's shocking to see how the political candidates trim their public statements to appeal to this crowd of conservatives.
Thrice married Giuliani had a more difficult time than the others at the values summit because of his moderate views on abortion, gun control and gay rights. He compensated a bit by his earlier comments criticizing "Islamofascist" terrorism, an approach that has appeal to the Florida values crowd.
Giuliani's foreign affairs advisor Norman Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary magazine, has said that we should begin bombing Iran "as soon as it is logistically possible."
Even arch-conservative and one-time Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan recently blasted Giuliani by noting that a Giuliani presidency informed by the anti-Islamist hysteria of Podhoretz "would guarantee a state of permanent war for America." Now there's a real moral problem!
Thompson, who acknowledged to the religious crowd at the summit that he rarely goes to church, then told the assembly that if elected president, "I would go into the Oval Office, close the door, kneel and pray for wisdom".
Although this new stance of piety didn't quite wash with his audience, a bit of knee bending and prayer might not be a bad idea for any of the candidates given the host of real moral problems any new president stands to inherit from President Bush.
Romney has so flip-flopped on the "value" issues that no one can be certain where he stands at any given moment. During his time as governor of Massachusetts, he was pro-choice, pro-immigration, and moderately anti-war. Today, he has changed position on every one of those issues.
And poor McCain, perhaps the most distinguished candidate of the lot and more liberal on the social issues than the value voters he was addressing, has been pro-Iraq war from the first day of "Operation Shock and Awe." While that history may have appealed to his audience that day, it is a position now rejected by 70 percent of U.S. voters.
This is not to say the Democrats are perfect on the bigger moral issues, but they at least are dealing in their campaigns with the concerns of health, justice, peace and equity.
I suppose I'm a bit biased when I hear these anguished discussions about such minor matters from the right wing. But I've been brought up to value western democratic political philosophy and the values of the Judeo-Christian moral code.
And I'd love it if I could hear the speakers at some future "values summit" pay more than lip service to the deeper ethical concerns that may determine whether we as a species even survive.
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Alan Miller lives in San Rafael and taught environmental and peace studies at UC Berkeley for many years.
That says it all.
Thanks but no thanks for the advice, buddy.
Congressman Billybob
Marin County produced Johnny Jihad, whose father divorced “mom” and then had a sex change operation.
It would seem to me that those folks need Jesus like a we need air to breathe, they are a bit out of touch in Marin County.
Translation: your morality is bad, mine is superior, but you are violating the separation of church and state, and I’m not a hypocrite for the double standard I force upon you.
“Alan Miller lives in San Rafael and taught environmental and peace studies at UC Berkeley “
Peace studies??
Let me help you out with some suggestions to solve your "urgent" issues Professor...
War and Peace....Stop appeasing those that want to kill us. The sooner we rid the world of murderers, the sooner we can all have peace.
Environmental decay....Hold a concert and raise some charity funds. The American middle class (see cash cow) doesn't have the money to prop up Al Gore's socialist movement. We are too busy trying to keep our family afloat financially while still giving to really needy people and responsibly planning for our retirement. Sorry Al (get a real job).
Poverty....I say, an iPOD in every pot this Christmas! Other than that, to improve the health and impoverishment of the world, keep sending money to feed the children in the third world and tell the American children to lay off the fries.
Gap between the Rich and the Poor....Do you mean the difference between a 30 year old non-working person living in his mother's basement watching TV and/or playing video games all day and a 65 year old retiree living off his nest-egg after years of contributing to society and investing? That gap? .....That's an easy one...I propose a ban on remote controls.
Healthcare...see above.
Ethnic and gender equality..... stop living in the sixties hippie!
There...now that I have solved all of your burning issues you can retire and stop brainwashing our children with your dreams of a Utopian socialist/commie state. Thank you very much.
If anyone still has doubts that smoking dope kills brain cells, this article should serve to sweep them away.
These people are seriously ill, and it is negligent on the part of all those who promote their agenda to let them go along into their deadly path, and not intervene and get them the help they desperately need.
It is always a wonderment to me that anyone who has grown up in a culture that created and then revered the values proclaimed in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution can be so anguished by what to most of us are simply issues of private morality.
How in the hell can any sane person write these two lines of gibberish one right after the other. But what is worse, what this guy fails to see is that a good many in the social conservative population that he derides, actually agree with him on the economic issues. That's the real story that no one is willing to tell. One day, they may even find themselves supporting the same candidates for political office. There's going to be a major political realignment coming...it may even be in its early stages (paternalist versus those who actually care about liberty -- with the paternalists in the overwhelming majority).
It is always a wonderment to me that anyone who has grown up in a culture that created and then revered the values proclaimed in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution can be so anguished by what to most of us are simply issues of private morality.
How in the hell can any sane person write these two lines of gibberish one right after the other. But what is worse, what this guy fails to see is that a good many in the social conservative population that he derides, actually agree with him on the economic issues. That's the real story that no one is willing to tell. One day, they may even find themselves supporting the same candidates for political office.
There's going to be a major political realignment coming...it may even be in its early stages (paternalist versus those who actually care about liberty -- with the paternalists in the overwhelming majority).
Odd, I though the gap was closing.
Or, does he mean THIS guy?
Or, was he referring to that man of the people, the great eco-friendly philanthropist, Bill Gates?
Now it comes to me: Just want I want for Christmas! I'm going to ask my wife for a stretch Ferrari, with twin V-16's!
And this is a problem, why??? :p
I've had one for years! lol
I don't know why he said these are "values voter concerns". These are 4 pillars of the democratic platform that have been shoved in our faces for 40 years.
That's another way of saying the man's a fool.
These "no, no, no, no" positions that stress the pinched minds of the social right-wing are not very high up on my scale of basic human values.
If you were not enjoying a right to life, Mr. Miller, you would not be able to write. There is no point in reading further as you have sawn off the branch supporting you.
Of course he’s a fool: he doesn’t consider his right to life “very high up on his scale of human values.” This calls into question his entire reasoning process (he depends on the right to life to be able to even write this drivel) and therefore renders any further reading at best a waste of time.
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