The November 3 election results news made it clear that the presidential election was won by fundamentalist Christians who were more concerned about moral values (i.e., the decay of American society and especially the ‘threat’ of homosexuality). However, Frank Rich in his New York Times column (free subscription required) points out that the quickly-spun theory is fiction: Arts > Frank Rich: On ‘Moral Values,’ It’s Blue in a Landslide” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/arts/14rich.html?pagewanted=1&8hpib&oref=login”>On ‘Moral Values,’ It’s Blue in a Landslide.
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.
He also concludes with a point that people don’t seem to have grasped: apart from Republican theories about an “ownership society,” the “march of freedom,” and a return to “moral values,” the Bush administration is genuinely, empirically hurting its base.
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.
(For an over-the-top take on this last point, see The Register UK’s letter from blue states to reds.)
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 
I have leaned to the left most of my life but as I have gotten older I must say that I agree with quite a few of the right wing’s arguements.I do think that America has become immoral.Our country would rather argue over whether or not homosexuals should be allowed to marry than whether or not to continue a war that the United States can not possibly win. We of course have succeeded in killing an enormous number of our enemies,and we have killed more of them they have killed of our people ,but I really don’t think that we are winning their hearts and minds.Niney percent of prisoners in Abu Grahd prison were forced to join the Iraqi army because if they did’nt they faced horrible violence to themselves and to their families.Most of them surrendered as soon as they had the opprotunity.Even Mr. Bush said that what our soldiers did was wrong.The knee jerk response of most Americans who support the war is “what about what they are doing to our people?”There is something missing from this question,and what is missing is a complete thought.What is the complete question?I don’t know because I have’nt heard it yet.If someone kills my son I do not have the right to kill their son.Two wrongs do not make a right.This is why I agree with the Republicans.The United States has become an immoral society.People in the United States do not realize that America is viewed as the Great White Satan.We have lost a major battle in the battle for hearts and minds.Arabs see Americans killing arabs on television.People say things like “you need to have a positive attitude”or”you need to support our troops”.My positive or negative attitude will have no effect on the outcome of this war.What we believe does not affect reality.We need to face reality.Fighting will continue in Iraq as long as the United States is present.American soldiers will continue to die.Establishing democracy in the middle east will not cause the arab world to love America.We have lost the battle for hearts and minds.We need to accept this.We are really angering Iraqis by killing their friends and family.This is not going to succeed in winning hearts and minds.Another point I agree with the Republicans on is that freedom is’nt free.The price of freedom in Iraq will be bought with the lives of American soldiers.I am not even going to argue about whether not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before.The point is now they do not.There is no logical reason to continue killing people.To reelect or maybe I should say to elect George Bush to be president proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that our country is indeed immoral.Our country has legislated morality in the past.Our country made the sale and consumption of alcohol illegal.This certainly did not make America a more moral place to live.Homosexuals will continue to engage in homosexual sex.It is none of my business.It is no one’s business except for the parties involved.Prostitution is illegal.Is this a victory for morality?Has making prostitution in America illegal solved any of of the moral problems in America?Drugs are considered immoral.has making drugs illegal solved any problems?The enourmous profits generated by the sale of illegal drugs have corrupted government in the United States on the local to federal level.People from all walks of life in America have been using illegal drugs.The only people who are going to jail for it are the people that don’t have the money to defend themselves.Yes, the Republicans are right.America is immoral.
I am going to try to explain why the marine shot and killed the unarmed wounded man in the mosque.What we have seen is a very emotional disturbed man.He is very angry and he is very afraid.He hates the people of Iraq.It is easier to see in a black and white world.He has seen his buddies die and be seriously maimed.He wants revenge.This is a normal response to what this man has been through.Is this murder?From what I have seen in Time I have to say yes.Do I blame him?no,I do not.The blame goes to America.I have read columns of people who try to justify what he has done because they are leaning hard to the right.The power of denial is truly amazing.I believe that bodies are being boobytrapped.I believe civilians are shooting at them from mosques.I believe our soldiers are killing innocent people.I can not blame the marine for doing what he did.I also can not blame the Iraquis for killing Americans.Everyone of us has a breaking point.I personally was not there.I do not believe he was afraid of this man.I believe he murdered that man in cold blood.