Conservatives try to deploy `values voters

[Judi Lynn]

Conservatives try to deploy `values voters
'Christian conservative leaders hope to make sure 'values voters' feeling abandoned by Republicans in Congress don't stay home on Election Day.
By MATT STEARNS
McClatchy News Service

PITTSBURGH - To the daunting challenges facing Republicans in the 2006 midterm elections, add another: angry ''values voters'' who feel used and abandoned.

''We put these people in power in 2004,'' said Sue Means, a home-school activist from suburban Pittsburgh. ``I really expected more. I'm disappointed.''

The failed federal marriage amendment, waffling on stem-cell research, no new limits on abortion -- Means sees little but broken promises from the Republican Congress. And she's far from alone among like-minded people widely credited in 2004 with helping ban same-sex marriage in 11 states and being key to President Bush's reelection.

''There are a lot of people that are somewhat disillusioned and have a feeling of betrayal for having worked so hard and have Republicans be so unresponsive,'' Dr. James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, said after speaking at a rally here this week. ``How that will play out, I really don't know.''
(snip)

''Whether Republicans deserve the power they were given, the alternatives are downright frightening,'' Dobson told more than 3,000 attendees at the Pittsburgh ''Stand for the Family'' rally.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/15592542.htm



James Dobson

[MadMaddie]

1. The Alternatives.....

So the neocons don't want
World Peace
They don't want and end to the Iraq War
They don't want America to come together and lead the world in science
They don't want equal rights for all Americans
They don't want to foster hope for Americans to achieve the dream...


These are the things Dems should be saying....


<snip>
''Whether Republicans deserve the power they were given, the alternatives are downright frightening,'' Dobson told more than 3,000 attendees at the Pittsburgh ''Stand for the Family'' rally
<snip>

I am sick of these so called Faux Christians...

[Monkeyman]

2. The Replugs this week In Congress will be playing only to these issues

They are not even going to address the $3 Billion shortfall at the VA

[Webster Green]

3. Vote for torture!

Thats the ticket!

[LeftCoast]

4. Hmph! The implication that only their voters have 'values' is such BS

At least they put it in quotation marks.

[Jade Fox]

17. I know. That so pisses me off.

:mad:
Why can't they say Conservative values? Oh, I guess it's 'cause they want us to look like we have no values at all. Did I say :mad:?

[Telly Savalas]

21. Any Democrat with half a brain would riff on what an inane concept it is

"Values voters"?

What values are expressed by the advocacy of applying electrical shock to somebody's testicles?

But our complacent Beltway political consultants can't be bothered to dispense such advice to our candidates.

[truthisfreedom]

5. "...the alternatives are downright frightening." why is it the terrorists

and the rethugs both use fear to control Americans?

[bluestateguy]

6. ''We put these people in power in 2004. ... I'm disappointed"

Hm. Sounds tough. Better stay home this November. That'll show 'em.

[dkofos]

7. Sure, you got nothing from us in the last two years,

but we need your vote.

SO WE CAN GIVE YOU NOTHING FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS

FUCKING SHEEP

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Thou shalt torture thy enemy.

One of the new traditional values.

[liberal N proud]

9. Funny thing is, they have done that before, THEY DON"T HAVE ANY VALUES

The republicans DON'T HAVE ANY VALUES. The fact that they will claim falsely that they do proves the lack thereof.

[Thickasabrick]

10. I talked to a hard core republican this week - his issue was........

the religious right of his party. He said he doesn't personally believe in abortion (don't have one), but he wouldn't want to make that choice for anyone else.

He is one of those republicans (Goldwater) who believes in small government and freedom of choice, (basically a libertarian with limits).

There are very many of republicans out there like him.

[rodeodance]

12. if they were all like him it would not be so bad for the rest of us.

[rodeodance]

11. "I'm disappointed.''--such a deal. guess what lady-I am ANGRY

[gully]

13. Dobson must be chagrined that he's no longer on Abramoffs payroll?

Poor poor hypocrite.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

14. Hmmm, does this mean the theocracy could be falling apart?

[samsingh]

15. these conservative imbeciles have no values

unless you count being felons, cheats, and morons values.

[EFerrari]

16. **There is no such animal. "Values voters" is code for

election theft.**

All you DUers in vulnerable precincts -- you need a plan! They're coming after your vote.

[Jade Fox]

18. When are these fools going to stop believing the GOP?

The Republicans can't deliver on the promises they have made for over 25 years to the Christian Right for the simple reason that the rest of us won't go along with it.

I'm guessing the Republicans don't tell them that when they come sniffing around at election time looking for votes.

[6000eliot]

19. They're suckers if they fall for it again.

The repubs only discover religion around election time.

[Radicalman]

20. Re: Republicans Turn To "Values" To Win Elections In 2006

This is an excellent strategy for the Republicans. Their party is basically the party of the super rich. The financial institutions, pharmaceuticals, weapons manufacturers, and other top economic sectors all love Bush. But he and the Republicans have to have a popular base. So they get people to focus on "values," not issues. Attention to issues would severely cut into the Christian right base of the GOP. For example, real wealth has declined under Bush for some 90% of the population.

Americans have the highest workload but the lowest access to good health services than any other industrialized country. Job insecurity is rising among the middle and lower middle classes. But Republicans get a lot of votes from working class people who vote on religiosity and guns. That's red meat for them.

If Republicans can get them to focus on rising to heaven when Armageddon comes, their daughter's virginity, the devil writing Darwin's works, black men seducing their wives, black women seducing their husbands, lesbians making out with their daughters, gays breaking up their marriages then these "values" (read religious primitivism, racism, anti-intellectualism, anti-science, homophobia) trump job insecurity, being over worked, under insured, etc. Stirring up an extreme fundamentalist strain in the United States isn't difficult to do.

If one looks at the public opinion polls, about 30% of the population believes in this warrior God whose primary concern is punishing the enemies of his chosen people and who is a very nasty and vindictive fellow. I think over 50% of the population rejects the theory of evolution which is the basis for eight or nine biological sciences. Certainly logic and critical thinking is foreign to most Americans because it isn 't emphasized in the public schools and is rarely encountered in the mass media. Most Americans haven't attained a 4th grade level of the knowledge of geography. It's a wonder, given this sad state of affairs, and the fact that State, Corporate, and Media power are merged and colonize the minds of most people that most Americans aren't slaves! I'm serious!
Of course maybe we are and I don't know it!!

Elections are bought and whoever floods the propaganda system with stupid slogans and images wins. The public relations people, playing on the ignorance of the American People, paid mostly by the corporations, keep us away from real issues in any election. But when Karl Rove is in the saddle, playing to fear, anti-intellectualism, love of guns, homophobia, and bigotry - "values issues" -I'm surprised that Republicans can lose any elections at all.

What Democrats can do about this is another issue.

[NMMNG]

22. We are all "values voters"

It's just that for some of us hatred, intolerance, indifference, cruelty and the like are not among the values we hold.