Everybody stop with the "Moral Values" meme already. Just stop. The last thing we need right now is continual re-affirmation of the importance of "moral values" in politics right now. That's so important because
- the very-right-wing conservatives benefit if we accept that, and
- it simply isn't true.
Bush didn't win on "moral values." Nor did Kerry lose on "moral values."
The issue here is trust.
Yes, I know that Christian Evangelicals were a large part of Bush's base. But what's meant by "moral values?" If someone asked me on my way out of the poll if I had voted based on moral values, I could've easily answered, "Yes!" myself; Bush's stances on, oh, just about everything are immoral IMO. But as a gay San Francisco liberal, I'm thinking my interpretation is quite a bit different from the Focus on the Family crowd in Colorado Springs. The exit polls asked if "moral values" were a concern to voters. And the voters answered yes to that question. But that's only superficially true.
The real issue was trust.
People don't elect a president based on issues. Rightfully or wrongfully, most people are too concerned with their daily lives to get involved with matters of foreign policy, domestic policy, economics, budgets, etc. We lament the fact that people vote for the guy they'd like to grab a beer with, or who they'd like to have to dinner. But they're not voting for the person that makes for pleasant company. They're voting for the person they trust. Someone you feel comfortable with is someone you trust. You don't spend an evening with someone you don't trust.
And that's what Bush connected accomplished in his campaign. People felt they had a clear idea of where he stood. People felt they knew what he was about. Bush connected with them. And once that connection was made, the facts didn't matter. Yes, Bush was a flip-flopper. Yes, Bush was AWOL in the TANG. Yes, most of Bush's business dealings were failures. But once Bush connected with his supporters, they rationalized those pesky facts away - or simply ignored them completely.
The Bush campaign understood how people pick a president, and they played to it. "Flip-flopping," Swift Boat Vets, etc... The point of those campaigns wasn't about presenting logical arguments on anything, much less policy. It was about raising questions of trust in Kerry.
And to be sure, this whole notion of voting on trust isn't simply a red-state phenomenon. The same applies to blue-state America as well. Why were we so enamored with Howard Dean? Yes, many of us did actually look at the issues and agree with him. But Dean had a very passionate following - myself included. You don't arouse that much passion based simply on rational consideration of issues. Dean's supporters were passionate because we knew we could trust him. He connected with us. He spoke what we were feeling. We felt that he was one of us. We felt we could predict how he'd respond even to issues he might not have addressed directly himself. We trusted him.
That's how things work. Of course policy is important. Of course there has to be substance behind a candidate (or there should be, anyway.) But for a large portion of the country, policy details are not going to sell a candidate. The candidate needs the trust of the people. And that's done by giving a clear, understandable vision - and giving it consistently.
The Democrats are a mess right now. There is no clear vision and no clear message. Everything the country knows about the Democrats is what the Republican party has defined them to be. Evil scary "Liberals," whatever that means. The party of Big Government. Weak on defense. Baby-killing, gay-loving, social radicals out to destroy civilization as we know it. And the Dems are letting them get away with it.
Democrats need to get their act together. (And I say "Democrats" as opposed to "the Democratic Party" b/c the Party leadership has proved itself useless.) Democrats need to lay out a set of values and a clear vision of the future. We need to know who we are and we need to convey that clearly and consistently to the people. Tell the people who the Democrats are and what they truly stand for. Then let's see who starts winning elections.