For Christian activists to actually call their yearly confab the “Value Voters Summit” takes a considerable amount of chutzpah.
Whose values? And doesn’t everyone vote for the candidate that best reflects their own values?
The truth is, we’re not talking about “values” as much as we’re talking about “issues:” abortion, gay marriage, and Lord knows what else that bubbles up as a result of the Christian right’s cockeyed view of American politics. And, of course, even beyond which “issues” define a “values voter” is the importance an individual politician attaches to those issues.
But values? Is there anyone who seriously argues that Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney’s “values” are superior to Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton’s? Don’t tell me that Hillary is any more or less honest than any of them. Ditto Romney. These people are politicians which by definition, places honesty far back in line as far as “Truths I live by.”
But to say that generally speaking, all American politicians share the same values should be a given. It should also be self evident that American voters share these values as well. These shared values make us a sovereign nation, a community of like minded citizens who are in general agreement regarding what is “right” and what is “wrong.”
Abortion and gay marriage? These issues are defined for each of us not a matter of values but of faith. Or the lack thereof. Rationalists argue a different point when life begins than many Christians. And while I’ve read secular arguments for not allowing gay marriage (unconvincing to me, anyway), allowing gay couples the same rights and privileges as married heterosexual couple via a civil union is nearly impossible to speak against when using “values” as a yardstick. One might argue as a matter of faith that homosexuals should be denied equal protections under the law (with some very specific exceptions). But don’t try and foist that idea as a “value” shared by the American people on the rest of us.
Hence, my beef with this “Values Voter Summit.” The issues that the Christian right want prominently addressed by Republican politicians are hardly on the radar of importance to the rest of us. Talk of a third party being formed simply because the GOP presidential candidate doesn’t have the same kind of commitment to the issues these Christian activists say are important only proves how totally skewed the agenda of the Republican party has become. It is a form of blackmail for candidates like Giuliani and Romney who governed in places where the activists were weak and therefore, they felt no pressure when they advocated their personal beliefs regarding abortion or gay marriage and did not try toeing some invisible party line.
I have my own problems with both Giuliani and Romney having nothing to do with their stance on abortion or gay marriage so I’m not making a partisan argument here. The idea that the “values voters” who met this weekend in Washington are saying their “values” are superior to those of others or even that they are more sharply defined does a disservice to the rest of us who share most of the same values as the Christian activists but try not to judge people who might disagree that one “issue” or another represents a moral judgement of what is right or wrong.
In the end, that is what is being foisted on the Republican party; not values but a rigid ideology disguised as religious faith that seeks to punish apostasy and push to the fore issues that are just not important to the rest of America.
The question isn’t whether this dynamic is going to change or not. The question is will it change fast enough to save the party. A couple of more disasters like 2006 won’t make a difference if the party refuses to learn the lessons that caused the defeats in the first place. And if it doesn’t learn, it is not beyond imagining that the Grand Old Party – once a powerhouse national organization that dominated so much of the country – would become a small, regional party confined to the south and a few border states; a rump of its former self.
The power of the religious right in party affairs has never been so great and it may take something of a civil war between the evangelicals and secular conservatives to hash this out. So be it.
We might as well get started right after the disaster that’s shaping up for the GOP in 2008.
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