Why I’m Bullish on Porn

I’d better not leave that title hanging out there without an

explanation for too long lest I get an angry call from grandma.   What I mean is that if I was going to recommend
that a Dem pick one issue to highlight when speaking to religious audiences (especially
moderate-to-conservative ones) that have an interest in family values, it would
be internet porn.  It is hard to imagine
a better Dem “wedge” issue, and it boggles the mind that more candidates aren’t
jumping on it.

Now when I talk about “Dem wedge issues,” I’m not using the
Rove model of finding something that turns one segment of the American
population against the other.  That’s not
good for our country, in general I’d say it’s not very moral, and it isn’t the direction
I think our Party should go.  When I talk
about “wedge issues,” I’m talking about issues that divide the Republican religious
base from the Republican Party leadership and force Republican voters to face
the hypocrisy of the overly-simplistic (but heretofore extremely effective) approach
of Republican strategists to electoral mobilization and policy development.

Enter internet porn.
First some facts (courtesy of a wonderful report by Third Way, one of
the Dem think tanks that truly “gets” these issues  http://www.third-way.com/data/product/file/14/porn_standard.pdf
).  The largest consumer demographic of
Internet porn is children 12 to17.  In
2005, the average age at which a
child was first exposed to porn was 11 years old.  One in eight Internet websites is
pornographic, and the on-line porn industry generated $12 billion in largely
untaxed revenues in 2004, which equals the revenue of ABC, NBC, and CBS
combined.  If ever there was a
family-values issue that affects our children, it is this one.  And believe it or not, Dems have a
brilliantly-crafted legislative solution: S. 1507/H.R 3479, which require credit card age verification before anyone would be
allowed to view any on-line pornographic content.  What makes this bill a work of legislative
art is that it would pay for the substantial costs of enforcing these
regulations by imposing a 25% tax on the internet porn industry.

Anyone figured out why this is a
winner for us yet?  You’ve got it, the
Republican leadership has been holding up this legislation because they don’t
like the tax on business!  It’s hard to
imagine a stance more counter to family values and anathema to religious voters
than not protecting our children from internet porn because we don’t want to
tax the on-line porn industry.  But
that’s the position the Rs have taken so far.
The White House has also sided with the telecommunication companies and
turned a deaf ear to evangelical Christian leaders who have pleaded with them
to regulate streaming video on cell phones to prevent our phones from being
spammed with streaming pornography.  We
all know what Jesus said about where one’s treasure is, and since the R
political machine is run on big-business and lobbyist money, it’s no surprise that’s
where their heart is.

That is what makes this a perfect
wedge issue.  Even the most partisan
evangelical has a deep-down fear that the Republicans really care more about
helping corporations and the very rich than they do about the defending God and
family.  This forces religious partisans
to face their biggest fears, and it clearly defines the Republican leadership as
the hypocrites that they are.  An added
political benefit is that this is also an issue that appeals to women’s
groups since pornography generally promotes unhealthy gender roles,
relationships, and body images.

I always make these points when I speak to Dems about faith and values, and candidates we are working with have
used this example in both liberal and ultra-conservative crowds.  This is the one time in a speech when I can
guarantee an audible response from the crowd.
People respond to this issue, and Dems need to start making sure a lot
more crowds are hearing about it.

I’ll conclude with one final point.  We’re writing in the context of campaigns in
this blog, and so strategy and winning are often going to be the focus of these
postings.  But we will lose in the
long-run if our only goal is winning.  We
can’t just do things because they will help us win the next election.  I’ll post later on church/state issues and
how people of faith engage the policy process in a fallen world, but I want to
conclude by reminding folks that making internet porn more difficult to access
is not just a winning issue for us from a political perspective, it is also the
right thing to do.