"Moral values," we are told, were the key to the Republican victories on election day. The GOP mobilized "values voters" — especially in the red states, especially in the Bible Belt.
And no Bible-Belt state is redder than Alabama.
But the people of Alabama didn't just cast their votes for president on Nov. 2, they also voted on a state referendum to amend their state constitution. The Washington Post's Manuel Roig-Franzia tells the whole story:
On that long-ago day of Alabama's great shame, Gov. George C. Wallace (D) stood in a schoolhouse door and declared that his state's constitution forbade black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.
He was correct.
If Wallace could be brought back to life today to reprise his 1963 moment of infamy outside Foster Auditorium, he would still be correct. Alabama voters made sure of that Nov. 2, refusing to approve a constitutional amendment to erase segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for "white and colored children" and to eliminate references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks.
It was as close a case as you will find of a vote being a simple choice between good and evil. By a narrow margin — "1,850 votes out of 1.38 million" — the people of Alabama chose evil.
Alabama's segregationist state constitution is a relic. It's racist provisions have long since been dismissed and ruled illegal and unenforceable by the federal courts (or, in GOP-speak, by "activist judges"). But as the vote this month shows, this segregationist language is far from irrelevant:
"There are people here who are still fighting the Civil War," said Tommy Woods, 63, a deacon at Bethel [Baptist Church] and a retired school administrator. "They're holding on to things that are long since past. It's almost like a religion."
"Almost like a religion" is exactly right. And the specific religion which it is almost like is Christianity. This almost-religion, this pseudo-Christianity, has become so popular and so successful that it is outselling the authentic original.
Many pundits are convinced that John Kerry lost the election because he was unable to talk comfortably about his faith and thereby to appeal to values voters. But talking about his faith — he's a churchgoing Catholic — wouldn't matter to the devotees of this almost-faith. Their almost-religion is not an ecumenical creed.
Leading the defense of Alabama's segregationist statutes were the bishops and archbishops of the almost-church, including the Christian Coalition of Alabama and civil-religion celebrity Roy Moore. They claimed their vigorous defense of segregationist language wasn't really a defense of segregation per se. They claim that they were merely opposing the possibility of future tax increases to fund Alabama's public schools.
You know, the public schools where all the black kids go. See, they're not old-fashioned racists. They're next-generation racists who don't think white people should have to pay taxes to educate black children.
President Bush got a bigger share of the vote in Alabama than did the "no" vote on the amendment, which shows that not all of Bush's supporters there are nostalgic for the days of Jim Crow. Not all, just most.
Before I'm willing to listen to another pundit lecturing on the superior "moral values" of the red states, I want to hear one of them explain how this evil Alabama vote demonstrates such superiority.
And before I hear any more lectures about how we liberals need to show more respect for the religious views of red-staters, I want someone to explain why it's acceptable for Roy Moore and the "Christian" Coalition of Alabama to mock my religion with their blasphemous parody of it.
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