What Values?

December 2004

Political pundits analyzing the 2004 election debacle conclude that Republicans won on “values” issues. They sure couldn’t have won based on their mendacious war-mongering nor their steal-from-the-poor, give-to-the-rich economic policies, so these “values” issues must be politically potent. Many Democratic strategists now urge adoption of a more “values centered” platform in order to be politically competitive with Republicans.

Such a strategy is indeed imperative. But instead of engaging in more “family, flag, and church” sloganeering, opposition must focus on the real and enduring values threatened by current Republican hegemony.

Today’s Republican Party is in the grip of Christian supremacists. They unapologetically want to transform the United States into a theocracy wherein government officials, acting like a cabal of ayatollahs, use the coercive power of the state to enforce what they imagine to be God’s will. Since God is all-powerful, his agents on earth must not be hobbled by secular quibbles about civil liberties or constitutional rights. And because God gave man dominion over the earth (and the end is near, in any case), efforts to protect the environment are seen as an indictment of God’s plan.

So, let’s have a debate about values. Do we prefer the values that flow from a proto-fascist theocracy, or do we prefer to remain committed to the ideals of secular government, religious tolerance, human rights, and rationalism? Some may imagine such a stark choice to be an exaggeration of the current situation, but sober consideration of the facts leads to ominous conclusions.

Bush wants to appoint more Supreme Court justices who think that gay sex– between adults in private– is feloniously sinful, worthy of decades in prison. The newly-elected Republican senator from Oklahoma has called for the execution of doctors performing abortions. The newly-elected Republican senator from South Carolina has proposed rooting out and firing gay school teachers. The recently-nominated candidate for Attorney General has advocated torture as an acceptable, “lawful” way to treat prisoners. Condoms disappear from federally-funded HIV-prevention efforts, stem cell research is banned, and demonstrable global-warming is denied as dogma displaces science in making policy decisions.

And Bush’s crusade to bring his “values” to Iraq– along with a dozen-plus permanent US military bases– has been the excuse for suspension of the Bill of Rights. Detention without charges, unrestricted government spying, and secret trials are the hallmarks of despotic regimes– and Bush’s war-driven administration.

The recent election demonstrates that sound-bites about family values and homeland patriotism can trump concerns about civil liberties and the separation of church and state. Indeed, the outcome has seduced some Democratic operatives into advocating adoption of similar hollow pieties, as though the fight is about developing better content-less marketing slogans.

Let us, however, be wary of looking to any political party for direction on such fundamental issues. Our freedoms will not be restored and preserved through better polling data or focus group testing. Freedom comes from a grassroots commitment to a tolerant, diverse, and secular government that respects individuals’ human rights. Thus, non-zealot Republicans appalled by the current administration (and church-goers who actually embrace Jesus’s message of love and forgiveness) are potential allies in the fight against Christian supremacists’ apocalyptic worldview.

Ultimately, the fight is not between “Republican” and “Democratic” values, but rather between those who fear freedom and tolerance, and those who respect the Enlightenment ideals of secular democracy. That’s what’s at stake, and those are the values we must champion– before it’s too late.

Pasted from <http://guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=7F0BFBEE-CD2D-454F-84A65318BC83F683>