Some Americans are obsessed with having a leader that shares the same moral values as them. My mom even timidly alluded to "moral values" as the rationale behind the election, before I told her not to go there.
I'm holding out hope some day to eventually get my mom clued in, as she's been a captive Republican all her life. At least she's willing to listen to an argument and can therefore be persuaded. OTOH, my 4 fundagelical siblings and I have moved to a war footing. My decision, not theirs. What we have here, is a failure to communicate.
So in the interest of communication (with a side dish of harassment), I decided what I need is a manifesto. A declaration of Moral Values so that I can share it with them and they can point out specific differences. It's in the extended box, and I could use a hand.
What I've written so far are MY beliefs, obviously, and I'm not shopping for a bigger closet of moral values. But I'd appreciate it if anybody could add some nice framing for some basic democratic principles, for example something like health care or civil liberties FRAMED as a MORAL value.
STATEMENT OF MORAL VALUES
- I believe in equal rights for all Americans as currently delineated in the US Constitution. Therefore my moral values do NOT include demonizing gay Americans and seeking to withold from them the same rights as other Americans, such as the pursuit of happiness inherent in having a legal mate and a family, regardless of ones religious beliefs.
- I believe in human rights as a moral value. Therefore my moral values do NOT include condoning the use of torture under any circumstances. Not on terrorists. Not on anybody. Not for any reason. (see: Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo)
- I believe in dealing truthfully with the world. Therefore, my moral values do NOT include lying to other countries about WMD to coerce them to enter a war. Then when no WMD are found to blame it on somebody else (my intelligence services), and change the rationale to some lame description of freedom and democracy "on the march".
- I'm pro-life. My moral values do NOT include killing 100,000+ Iraqi civilians (so far) in the pursuit of establishing "freedom and democracy" in the Middle East.
- I believe protecting the environment is a moral value. Therefore my moral values do NOT include destroying the environment in the United States by allowing corporations to pollute at will and write their own legislation, coming up with cute names like "clear skies" and "healthy forests" and hoping nobody ever bothers to actually read the legislation. My moral values also do NOT include ignoring the threat of global warming and trying to pass off everything that causes a corporation to lose a nickel as some form of junk science.