Morals---my ass

[DemocracyInaction]

I'm sick of hearing about how this election was won because of American moral values. It wasn't morals. It was ignorance that was easily manipulated by hate mongering and fear. The media, instead of calling it ignorance, called it morals. And the republican party intends to keep dishing out the hate mongering and fear (ummm, morals) until the American middle class is down there with any good peon class in a third world country. Let the stupid sheep eat cake--ahh, actually, let them eat "morals" and see how long before they starve on that diet (couldn't happen to a better group). They will not wake up until they are hungry and they find that their church won't be feeding them......and neither will Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

[Squeech]

1. Morals, but for thee and not for me

The thing about morals and values, as practiced by these poltroons, is that it's all about picking on somebody else. Find a nice wedge issue, like gay marriage, that doesn't affect a lot of people you know personally (or you think it doesn't), but makes a convenient target of faux-religious outrage.

But the "morality" behind Shock and Awe, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, etc. somehow never gets questioned.

Nor, ultimately, does the morality of lynching, which is where I fear we're heading.

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. The New American Morality....

Fuck your neighbor...then yourself.

[DemocracyInaction]

6. Mrs.Grumpy---that was priceless

Indeed---first go out and fuck your neighbor so you can beat them, get ahead, etc. Then go out and vote republican so you can get fucked yourself. It is the ulitimate in dumb fucker. It really is. They fuck their neighbor out of greed and then they let corporate America fuck them by voting repub. But, I'm going to love to see them screwed until they scream over the next four years. Hopefully, our goddamn Dems won't sit around with their finger up their ass this time but instead yell "fuck, fuck--see the fuck" every time the GOP does it 'cause the people can't figure out who is fucking them all by themselves. All the GOP does four years from now is tell the people that it was the Dems who screwed them and they beeeeelieve.

[gauguin57]

8. OR, as Barry McGuire said in "Eve of Destruction" ...

"... Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace ..."

[Bjornsdotter]

10. Is that a...

....premptive fuck? A fuck them before they fuck us...kind of thing?

I'm sure the Dimson crowd will rally 'round that idea whole-heartedly.

Sigh....

[sangh0]

3. It was VALUES, not MORALS

.

[Owlet]

4. The exit polls supposedly cited "moral values"

as the number one issue for a large percentage of Bush voters. Conceding that the exit polls were more or less accurate and that the media reported the results more or less faithfully, your point is probably correct in that the voters citing 'moral values' are living examples of the triumph of ignorance over wisdom. It's much easier for some folks to 'believe' something based on someone in authority making an assertion, than it is to actually 'know' something, which usually requires an effort to acquire, understand and assimilate a body of facts into knowledge.

Ignorance is basically due to laziness, the unwillingness to make the effort. Ignorant people aren't all stupid: they just prefer to let other people do their thinking for them. This has always been the case.
The interesting aspect to the current situation is that not only does the majority of the voting population exhibit a disturbing degree of ignorance, but that the President himself displays those same symptoms.

[Zero Gravitas]

5. "morals"

The people who cite "moral values" as their reason for voting for Bush confuse sanctimony about other people's sex lives with "morality". they are not moral people. they are ignorant bigots. Whether they know it or not they destroyed their children's future to prevent other people from doing things that would not effect them in the slightest.

America has chosen its path and it will have to reap what it has sown.

[Midlodemocrat]

7. I agree totally

my repug neighbors all voted for Chimp and are so far right wing they are almost left. I have told I am going to hell for saying that Jesus was a liberal. I would never presume to tell anyone where they are going to spend eternity. Judgmental crap. You are right, you reap what you sow. God help us. and God save the world from us.

[kwolf68]

9. We had a chance to win

With a moral vision, but the Democrats just don’t get it.

We have to be more appealing to religious people.

You don’t have to be anti-gay, but you have to speak in terms they understand. It is MORAL to provide for the sick, it is MORAL to end war, it is MORAL to aid the hungry and homeless, it is MORAL that every child get an equal chance at a great education, it is MORAL to provide health care to every person in the nation.

It is NOT moral to allow the rich the spoils of the earth, it is NOT moral to LIE about WAR.

It isn’t hateful right-wing Christian bigots that reject the Democratic Party. It is DEMOCRATS who hear no compelling MORAL vision from their own party.

[liveoaktx]

11. On NPR yesterday, this was discussed-that the Dems aren't as good

at framing the values issue, but we SHOUlD. One of the things we have an opportunity to do is to reframe moral values so that it doesn't only apply to gay marriage and abortion, but also to the morality of war, killing innocents, taking responsibility when crimes occur (buck stops here) and telling the truth. The commentators discussed how people VOTE THEIR VALUES and the Democrats simply didn't do as good a job of defining the range of equally valid values.

I wondered when I heard that if perhaps the Republicans only saw the moral values of Democrats in terms of these 2 issues and could not be a part of the party for this reason?

We can REFRAME this.