Reclaiming Morality: Just Call Us 'Values Voters'

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

December 7, 2007

It's not often that I agree with conservative columnist George F. Will, who called the term "value voters" an "aggressively annoying new phrase in America's political lexicon." He could have been channeling my thoughts when he said in a 2006 Washington Post piece: "This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It is…arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values." Yet in a CNN news report on Nov. 28, the terms "Christian conservatives" and "values voter" were treated as interchangeable.

I realize that my beliefs, ethics, values, and moral compass are just that -- mine. Their rightness or, let's be fair and balanced here, wrongness, are relative - the result of my own life experiences, ideals, judgments and evolving views about the larger world. In some cases, my thinking is entirely based on loaded opinion. For example, my rather freely expressed sentiments about wild women improving with age (undeniable), feminism suiting men (true), or girls rocking (who can argue with that?) -- these are my beliefs.

But my values are also informed by hard-core facts: women are paid 77 cents for every dollar a man receives; women are six times as likely as men to experience intimate partner violence; heart disease is the leading cause of death for women. My "values" include equality and fair treatment, as well as freedom from violence and racism and bigotry. And when it comes to voting, that combination of facts and values drives my decisions at election time.

Interestingly, it appears that conservatives claiming the "family values" mantle have been engaged in a bit of wishful thinking, reinforced by the media. Opinion polls indicate that the majority of the public prefers Democrats to handle the issues of "moral values" and the "war on terror," yet many reporters and pundits persist in identifying Republicans as the party of so-called "values voters." Those of us looking for political representation further left on the spectrum, are said to be, as CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley asserted in 2004, on "the losing side of the values debate."

With the proliferation of terms like "values voters," "pro-family voters," and "family values" leading up to this 2008 presidential election, we are once again getting the message that only anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-war and pro-gun constituents have moral values. By those standards, one can't be faithful without being an evangelical, moral without being "pro-life," or a family man (and I mean man -- language among these circles is still highly chauvinistic) without gay bashing. I beg to differ.

This may come as a surprise to right-wing politicians, but the rest of us have families, morals, and values too. While they frequently malign feminists, our "belief in the social, political and economic equality of women," our work promoting diversity and challenging discrimination, and our commitment to ending war, violence and poverty, is indeed value-laden, and it informs our votes. Just call us values voters.

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