The immoral majority

Much is being made of the exit polls that show "moral values" were one of the driving forces behind this election (Ted Olson has a nice roundup of articles on this).

The only people doing exit polling in my precinct were me and the other Moveon volunteers. But if, as I exited the voting booth, some pollster had been there, clipboard in hand, and asked me if "moral values" had played a role in my vote, I would have said, "Yes, absolutely."

"Moral values" led me to vote for John Kerry. "Moral values" are why I oppose the Bush administration and so much of their agenda. "Moral values" drove me to spend the last two months knocking on doors and harassing my neighbors into getting out in record numbers to vote 2-to-1 in favor of sending Bush back to Crawford.

"Ah, no," says the pollster. "That's not what we meant. By 'moral values' we mean that you believe that two dudes kissing constitutes an intolerable threat to freedom and democracy."

Then why didn't you say so?

"Look," the pollster continues, "other factions have claimed the term 'morality' as their own. We've decided to accept this uncritically and, therefore, to brand you and everyone who thinks like you as immoral. We never imagined you might find this offensive."

I do find this offensive.

"Moral values" is not an equivalent euphemism for "opposition to gay marriage." Neither is "faith" or "evangelical Christianity" or any of the other misleading shorthands that pollsters and pundits have been using for the phobia that dare not speak its name.

And it's only slightly less offensive when the euphemism is qualified as "traditional moral values." It's a fine tradition that stretches back through the magistrates of Salem to the Sheriff of Nottingham to Annas and Caiphas. But the Pharisees and the Robber Barons have never had exclusive claim to what constitutes "moral values." There's another tradition that's just as old and stretches back just as far. And defenders of this tradition have fought against the Pharisees all along the way.

The exit pollsters and many who are now quoting them accept the faith and morality of the Pharisees as the only legitimate faith and morality. They therefore advise people like me to stop advocating for "immoral" causes like equal rights for "immoral" people.

You have to learn from elections, they say. The people have spoken and their choice is clear. If you want to win in the future, you're going to have to learn to be more like Barabbas.