Frank Rich: On 'Moral Values,' It's Blue in a Landslide

[Snellius]

FAREWELL to Swift boats and "Shove it!," to Osama's tape and Saddam's missing weapons, to "security moms" and outsourced dads. They've all been sent to history's dustbin faster than Ralph Nader memorabilia was dumped on eBay. In their stead stands a single ambiguous phrase coined by an anonymous exit pollster: "Moral values." By near universal agreement the morning after, these two words tell the entire story of the election: it's the culture, stupid.

"It really is Michael Moore versus Mel Gibson," said Newt Gingrich. To Jon Stewart, Nov. 2 was the red states' revenge on "Will & Grace." William Safire, speaking on "Meet the Press," called the Janet Jackson fracas "the social-political event of the past year." Karl Rove was of the same mind: "I think it's people who are concerned about the coarseness of our culture, about what they see on the television sets, what they see in the movies ..."
...
If anyone is laughing all the way to the bank this election year, it must be the undisputed king of the red cultural elite, Rupert Murdoch. Fox News is a rising profit center within his News Corporation, and each red-state dollar that it makes can be plowed back into the rest of Fox's very blue entertainment portfolio. The Murdoch cultural stable includes recent books like Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" and the Vivid Girls' "How to Have a XXX Sex Life," which have both been synergistically, even joyously, promoted on Fox News by willing hosts like Rita Cosby and, needless to say, Mr. O'Reilly. There are "real fun parts and exciting parts," said Ms. Cosby to Ms. Jameson on Fox News's "Big Story Weekend," an encounter broadcast on Saturday at 9 p.m., assuring its maximum exposure to unsupervised kids.
...
But the distance between this hard-core red culture and the majority blue culture is perhaps best captured by Tom Coburn, the newly elected Republican senator from Oklahoma, lately famous for discovering "rampant" lesbianism in that state's schools. As a congressman in 1997, Mr. Coburn attacked NBC for encouraging "irresponsible sexual behavior" and taking "network TV to an all-time low with full frontal nudity, violence and profanity being shown in our homes." The broadcast that prompted his outrage on behalf of "parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere" was the network's prime-time showing of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/arts/14rich.html?8hpib

[Tesibria]

1. VERY GOOD - - thanx !!

Rich hits the nail on the head
again!

~Tesibria
-----------------------
www.democracyiscoming.com
www.cafepress.com/tesibria (T-shirts, etc. - "Proud Member of Moral Minority"-"Hitler had a mandate"-What would Jefferson Think-Count the Votes-Great Quotes-much more)

[mindfulNJ]

6. Great column...

says it all, doesn't it?

[9119495]

2. Nominated for homepage

This is the kind of hypocrisy the "loyal opposition" needs to be pointing out all the time.

[George_S]

17. Tried, but too late. One of the best articles I've read here though.

In short: relax! "They" aren't taking over the world.

[Bill McBlueState]

3. Stunning arguments!

And I'll second Rich's endorsement of Thomas Frank's book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" I'm about halfway through it.

[we.can.do.better]

10. It is actually a bunch of crap. Try living here for a few months before

you say these sort of things.

Seriously, I want the Democratic party to make more of an impact out here, but this kind of arrogant snobbery is not the way to do it.
These aren't evil people, and they aren't dumb. They just need to be persuaded.

Also, there are several factual inaccuracies in the book

[norml]

12. The "moral values" of the "conservative" movement are a bunch of crap!

And exposing them for what they are is the only way to go. The right wing repub media whores would have us silence ourselves,our media,and our most outspoken representatives. It isn't snobbery to be giving them a reality check. It's not arrogant to speak the truth,and to say when someone,or something is wrong. The right wing media machine is just an infomercial for the republicans. It has no connection to reality. Their purpose is to divide,and demoralize us,and to have us do the wrong thing. Ignore them.

[Name removed]

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[VPStoltz]

26. What we need to know...

I agree that we need to know what is going on in the minds of those in the parts of the "red states" who voted for *. I don't recall where I reads this but it made a lot of sense to me. People do NOT like being told what to think - and the "red states" have felt that the "elites" in Holywood, etc. are trying to do that. Our job is not just to find out what they think, but ASK them what they think. This opens up a new avenue for discussion. When you say, "Tell me how war fits into your sense of values," or "Can you explain to me how you can feel it's morally ethical to plan a war without any facts to back it up, and then borrow the money from one of our cultural, political enemies (China) to wage it?" War, violence, hunger and poverty are all "values" that a lot of those who gave the nod to * hold. These are values that the Progressives must connect with as well as making values and character mutually compatible. And then just get mean about it like the Repukes do.

[maxsolomon]

14. live in KANSAS? no thanks.

its a place you leave.

give the plains back to the buffalo.

[Name removed]

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[Desperadoe]

4. This should be on the front page!!

Finally, someone writes an intelligent, comprehensive article about the real statistics associated with the US electorate. I have maintained that we are analyzing this thing the wrong way since even before the election.

Values didn't win this election for the Republicans. They were just much slicker than we were. They know it's not so much what the issues are, it's how you "frame" them and nobody "frames" the issues better than the Republicans. And we just keep on letting them outsmart us. So much for our being intellectually superior.

We do not need to change our objectives and our values, we just need to find someone who can hit Karl Rove's curveball...........straight back to his head.

[Name removed]

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[Beetwasher]

5. I Love This:

"According to this argument, the values voters the Democrats must pander to are people like Cary and Tara Leslie, archetypal Ohio evangelical "Bush votes come to life" apotheosized by The Washington Post right after Election Day. The Leslies swear by "moral absolutes," support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and mostly watch Fox News. Mr. Leslie has also watched his income drop from $55,000 to $35,000 since 2001, forcing himself, his wife and his three young children into the ranks of what he calls the "working poor." Maybe by 2008 some Democrat will figure out how to persuade him that it might be a higher moral value to worry about the future of his own family than some gay family he hasn't even met."

These fucking morons are too stupid to breed. I feel sorry for their kids. What complete fucking morons. I'm glad he's working poor, I hope they get poorer, the dumb fucks. Maybe they could eat their crucifixes as they watch Fox news and pray to Bush. Idiots.

[piece sine]

13. Wow!

there's not a single humanitarian or populist bone in your body, is there?

[scarletwoman]

15. Well, what do YOU call someone who's more concerned with controlling

the behavior of strangers than taking care of his own family? I'd say "idiot" is a fair word.

The Democratic platform offered to make his life better, but he'd rather vote for someone promising to make someone ELSE'S life WORSE. Where's the humanitarianism in THAT?

I do pity them for their closed-mindedness, but I'm quite sure they want nothing from me -- I am, after all, a liberal and therefore evil in their eyes.

Let these people reap what they have sown -- it's the biblical way, after all.

sw

[Name removed]

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[karlrschneider]

25. The problem is that fucking morons aren't amenable to persuasion.

:eyes:
Considering alternative ideas requires at least a few functioning neurons.

[otohara]

7. Good Read

thanks for posting

[sundancekid]

8. another Rich point of view -- more thanks for posting and a kick

[Michael_UK]

9. kick - great article

Democrats don't need to chase the gay-hating, pre-enlightenment vote. Consider how popular Clinton was AFTER Lewinsky. Most americans don't care about "morality" as an election swinger

[ArthurRuger]

11. Go Frank! Thanks Snellius.

Morale values were also at the heart of the argument against re-electing the president. He has not been dishonest or shy in proclaiming his sense of having been placed in the presidency by God nor his intention to foster conservative corporate business and tax philosophies and a neocon philosophy of world domination. Those who voted for him heard him repeatedly assert those dogmatic economic and political views. There are moral values inexorably and directly connected to these philosophies as well.

I advocate holding not only the President's feet to the moral values fire, but the footsie's of all those stampeded folks who voted for him.

[Moderator]

16. Kick

:kick:

[Kellis]

18. just another example of the hypocrisy

going on in the "red" state of mind.

Its JUST like the Saudis who come to America and revel in our freedoms and luxuries and then go back to Saudi Arabia and condemn the USA.

[Name removed]

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[tortfeasor]

19. Excellent!!! n/t