In response to a 2004 Election Day exit poll that asked voters which was the most important issue in the election, 22 percent of the 13,660 respondents ranked “moral values” as the most important, above terrorism and the economy. Eighty percent of that group voted for George W. Bush.
Last weekend at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, high-profile social conservatives reached out to those and other like-minded voters, encouraging them to turn out for the midterm elections in November, despite the Bush administration’s equivocations on issues such as abortion, stem cell research, homosexual “marriage” and illegal immigration.
At the “Values Voter Summit,” sponsored by the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family and Americans United to Preserve Marriage, the message was clear: Christians and social conservatives must be politically active if they’re going to have an impact on the cultural war. Speakers like Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.; Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.; White House press secretary Tony Snow; James Dobson; Gary Bauer; Maggie Gallagher; and Ann Coulter, author of “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” energized the crowd with tough talk against activist judges, radical homosexual and feminist agendas, and Islamofascism.
Christians have returned to the public square. Consequently, groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State are galvanizing against them. Before the conference, the group sent 117,000 letters to pastors of churches it claims were targeted by conference organizers, reminding them that endorsing specific candidates is a violation of Internal Revenue Service regulations.
But Gary Bauer, passionate and dynamic, told pastors not to be intimidated by such tactics or by potential IRS investigations. No churches were asked to endorse specific candidates, and pastors are not violating IRS regulations by encouraging their congregations to vote for candidates whose moral values are aligned with their own.
Liberals have tried to minimize the impact moral values had on the last election. Downplaying the exit poll, left-leaning media and bloggers argued that it was skewed and overstated the importance of issues like homosexual “marriage” in the election. Whether or not the poll was skewed, conservatives weren’t the only ones convinced that religion played a prominent role in Bush’s victory.
After surprising losses in 2004, certain liberal politicians said their party needed to establish its spiritual credentials and that conservatives didn’t have a monopoly on values. The interim president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League told The New York Times that the Democratic Party needed to use “more religious language,” while maintaining a “pro-choice” stance. The Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual advocacy group, decided it should “bow to political reality and moderate its message and its goals” in light of election losses.
And the losses were stunning. Ironically, John Kerry’s liberal home state was responsible. In response to a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling that upheld so-called same-sex marriages, 11 states placed constitutional amendments to banhomosexual “marriage” on their state ballots. All 11 passed the bans, including states that Kerry won. The spectacle of two men standing before an altar “marrying” each other was apparently too much even for liberals.
Democrats are right about one thing: Conservatives don’t have a monopoly on values. Liberals also live by a set of values, though they tend to clash with conservatives’. For example, some Christians of the liberal variety believe women have a moral right to choose to kill their babies in the womb. Conservative Christians believe unborn babies have the right to live. For one group, choice is valued above unborn life. For the other, the right to live is valued above so-called choice.
The cultural war is an age-old battle that will continue until the end of the age. It is fought every day, from classrooms to courthouses. Christians and social conservatives are no longer willing to sit back and allow radical groups and mainstream media to define what is right and wrong. The Values Voter Summit was only a sign of things to come.
La Shawn Barber is a member of The Examiner’s Blog Board of Contributors and blogs at www.lashawnbarber.com.
