George Values Voters

All voters, regardless of their political persuasion.

Who Isn't A 'Values Voter'?: "On Sunday a Los Angeles Times article on the possibility of a presidential run by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reported: 'The Family Research Council, an influential evangelical activist group, has invited Gov. Bush to appear at a fall conference of 'values voters.' ' On Monday the Wall Street Journal quoted a pastor who is president of a Texas-based organization, Vision America, that mobilizes conservative pastors: 'Values voters see their vote as a sacred trust.' The phrase 'values voters,' which has become ubiquitous, subtracts from social comity by suggesting that one group has cornered the market on moral seriousness.

Last Saturday, when John McCain delivered the commencement address at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, he was said to be reaching out to values voters. Hillary Clinton, speaking recently at the annual U.S. Chamber of Commerce convention, scolded 'kids,' by which she evidently meant young adults, for thinking 'work is a four-letter word.' She was said to be courting values voters. If so, those voters must value slapdash rhetorical nonsense as well as work.

It is odd that some conservatives are eager to promote the semantic vanity of the phrase 'values voters.' And it is odder still that the media are cooperating with those conservatives.

Conservatives should be wary of the idea that when they talk about, say, tax cuts and limited government -- about things other than abortion, gay marriage, religion in the public square and similar issues -- they are engaging in values-free discourse. And by ratifying the social conservatives' monopoly of the label 'values voters,' the media are furthering the fiction that these voters are somehow more morally awake than others."

Every vote counts the same as the one before and the one after. At least that is how it is supposed to work.

Values voter = Single issue voter. Not really a good idea as it could (and did) lead to governmental bedlam. All politics, no work, just campaigning for the next time. George and I don't normally agree on much, but in this instance he has nailed it. Thank goodness.

Tags: values voter, george will