
 |
|
May 20, 2013
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Oct. 29, 2007
17 Mar-Cheshvan 5768
The Values Voter is us
By
Suzanne Fields
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The conventional wisdom says the religious right has a monopoly on the "values voters," but that's too simple. We're all values voters. We just define our values differently. In a democracy, politics is the art of capturing the passions of the people, and in the heat of the race, intelligent argument usually drives most of us toward the middle.
"The fact that we cannot escape moral conflicts in politics does not doom American democracy to endless political warfare," writes Jon A. Shields, a professor of political science at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, in the Wilson Quarterly. Shields shows how ideologues appeal to the emotions of specific constituencies, but they have to persuade others with reason. "Even the most religiously inspired social movements learn to moderate their appeals in order to win over middle-of-the road citizens."
A slight shift of opinion transforms the red states and the blue states into various shades of purple. Frances Willard, the zealous president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union at the end of the 19th century, understood the importance of reaching out to the opposition. "Be of teachable spirit," she told her followers, "and [be] tolerant of those opinions which differ from ours while we strive to show the reasonableness of ours." An organization called Stand to Reason trains religious activists today to avoid religious language and encourage lively debate on the moral issues of cultural significance.
Religious arguments arm the dedicated ideologue, but a broader argument is necessary to get the less spiritually minded to listen. In the early 20th century there was strong support for sterilization of the psychologically impaired, based on the "science" of eugenics. The Roman Catholic Church naturally crusaded against eugenics, but not by emphasizing religious doctrine. The crusaders brought legal, scientific and moral arguments to bear showing how eugenics contradict our most cherished notions of social justice.
Appeals to compromise or moderation drive the fanatics in any social movement to the sidelines of cultural struggle. Fires destroy everything when zealots get too fired up. It's not hard to find numerous examples. The impatient and irrational flee from appeals to reason to marginalization and then sometimes to violence. The no-compromisers in the civil rights movement begat the Black Panthers, the environmentalists begat eco-terrorists, the New Left begat the Weathermen, pro-lifers begat abortion clinic bombers.
Those who advocate moderation, however unsatisfying moderation can be, are more likely to succeed in getting their views across. Rudy Giuliani seemed to be acting on that notion when he spoke last week to religious conservatives at the Values Voters Summit in Washington. "Christianity is all about inclusiveness," he said, and he quoted Ronald Reagan, the hero hovering over the summit: "My 80 percent friend is not my 100 percent enemy." The former mayor of New York didn't win many votes in the summit straw poll, but he was talking to the larger audience that will determine the winner next year.
Ironically, the politics of the New Left of the 1960s crusaded for "values voters" before the conservatives did. But they failed to build a winning consensus and Richard Nixon won the election. The New Left lost its appetite for values voters when it turned out that they had the wrong values. The right succeeded in organizing the grassroots, creating a broad conservative movement of civic engagement that liberals satirized with the bumper sticker, "Nuke the gay whales for Jesus."
"One of the great political ironies of the past few decades is that the Christian Right has been much more successful than its political rivals at fulfilling liberal thinkers' hopes for American democracy," writes Prof. Shields.
But the future of the religious right is less clear. The presidential contenders asking for their votes are more mixed in their appeal than George W. Bush was seven years ago. It's harder now to excite passion with reason when the arguments aren't 100 percent ideologically pure. But Americans remain a practical people, and nobody likes a losing strategy for long, no matter how dear the single issue.
The separation of church and state remains the great triumph of our democracy, enabling lively and often contentious argument that leads to workable, if not always wholly satisfying, compromise. The tensions between enlightenment and evangelism have been with us throughout our history, a struggle between reason and emotion. It's a tension that at its best provokes informed debate on moral and intellectual issues. To paraphrase Pogo, the philosopher of the comics pages, "We have seen the values voter, and he is us."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor Suzanne Fields' column by clicking here.
Suzanne Fields Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate, Suzanne Fields
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|