Republicans continually push issues of morality. They attempt to legislate morality and codify a set of standards in accord with their moral stances. We as progressive continually fight back with logical arguments against said stances, but often loose. We loose because as having previously pointed out here.... logical arguments do not draw the emotional ire required to engage a larger swath of citizenry.
Click the Great Orange Satan for my rant on why progressive issues ARE issues of morality and how we can shape our arguments to draw the emotional responses we need to move this giant boulder forward.
If the right wants to argue morality, then fine. Let us take up that argument.
It is IMMORAL for a nation to allow millions of children to go without a meal in a nation with so much excess.
It is IMMORAL for a nation to allow millions to go uncared medically while corporations rape millions of profits off the deaths of Americans.
It is IMMORAL for a nation to ignore the suffering of veterans fighting two unnecessary wars.
It is IMMORAL to saddle our future generation with mountains of debt for education, a generation who wants nothing more than to better themselves so that THEIR children have a better life.
It is IMMORAL to separate families via deportation years after they have established roots, effectively destroying strong local community bonds.
It is IMMORAL to think that THIS generation is the only generation and consume our resources as if the next generation matters not.
It is IMMORAL to prevent laborers in all trades the ability to organize to redress their employer for safer working conditions, better compensation, and fairer treatment.
All these examples are just a start. Look at each one. Go ahead look it over again. Can you not look at each one and find a single one where you can relate a very real and personal story? When arguing for a progressive point from above, argue it from emotion using a real example of how a progressive stance and policy would have prevented said sad story.
Here, I'll go first to give an example. Because medical care is something important to me, and something that effects everyone in this nation.
We are planning a trip to visit my grand mother. She has seen her great grand son a total of 8 times. This has mostly been due to the distance between herself and my family. She is diabetic, over 80, and well....lets just say that diabetes is progressing as diabetes does. She has sores on her legs, is loosing eye sight, and just...yeah. She has fought the good fight though. She's been diabetic since her early forties, and had controlled it through diet and exercise since she turned seventy.
The only reason she will be alive for another and most likely her last visit with her great grand son?
Medicare.
She lives in tax credit housing, receives her social security every month (a grand total of 340 dollars btw), and gets decent medical care through her medicare coverage. The spreading of costs involved with medical care of the elderly that is Medicare has allowed her to live a very modest life, and be able to survive for another visit with distant family.
Without this safety net?
A son would suffer financially to support his mother.
A grand son would never have a last visit to tell his grandma he loves her.
And a great grand son would never come to know his family and where his heritage comes from.
So...yes. If the right wants to pull the morality card, so can we, and we can do it in a large way if we argue from the personal perspective. Are there people who will ignore these arguments? Of course! Those people are lost in their Randian universe of grand free market utopia. Let them have their Hunger Games though. We need to focus on the middle. People who might vote Republican but only do so out of habit most of the time. It is there, this middle American, who can be moved by very real and personal stories of 'big' government catching them in the free fall to destitution and despair.
Shape the message to the personal level, and door by door we can win the day.