On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian Tendencies

[durutti]

http://www.counterpunch.org/alberts01012005.html

President Bush knowingly lied to the American people to gain their support for his administration's unnecessary pre-emptive war against Iraq: by falsely accusing Saddam Hussein of possessing "mushroom cloud" threatening weapons of mass destruction, and of being involved with Al Qaeda in the 9/11 attack against America. In spite of all the evidence refuting his basis for war, a majority of Americans voted to re-elect him president particularly because of his faith-based "moral values."

During the presidential campaign, President Bush repeatedly tortured the truth in stump speeches to pre-screened, applauding, laughing and booing on cue Republican audiences: about his administration's having shared the same pre-war "intelligence" regarding Iraq's assumed weapons of mass destruction with Congress and his opponent, who also saw the "threat," about his then going "to the United Nations, and I did so because force is the last resort for America," and about Saddam Hussein continuing "to deceive the weapons inspectors" ("In West Virginia, President Bush Advocates for Education and Health Care Reform and Results," Aug. 17, 2004, www.georgewbush.com); "Raw Data: Bush Speech in Springfield," July 30, 2004, www.fox.com.) The emerging contradictory facts caught up with Bush's lies but evidently not with enough of the electorate: he was rewarded with "four more years" in office especially for his evangelical Christian "moral values."

A pre-election study revealed that, since the American-led March 2003 invasion, the lives of 100,000 Iraqi civilians, most women and children, have been violently aborted, mainly by US-led air strikes and artillery ("Iraqi Coalition Deaths Increase Dramatically After Invasion," Oct. 28, 2004, www.hgph.edu). A week later Americans voted to return President Bush to the White House notably because of his opposition to abortion, i.e. his religiously based "moral values."

The belief that President Bush's "moral values" helped him to win re-election has led certain political and theological pundits to conclude that the Democrats must "get religion" and bridge the "God gap" if they are to regain the presidency. They are being told to get a grip on God and morality and, like the Republicans, let their light of faith shine for all religiously-motivated voters to see if they are ever to achieve a political resurrection. Those who interpret the presidential election in these terms appear to miss a critical point: rather than faith-based "moral values," the election appears to reveal a growing morality gap in America. We may not be witnessing the ascendancy of "moral values" but the rise of authoritarian tendencies in Americans. It is this apparent phenomenon, and the moral and spiritual crisis it represents, that need to be examined and addressed.

[coloradodem2005]

1. Republicans don't have a grip on God.

They pretend to in order to dupe unsuspecting people.