Here's what I want to hear the next time a Rep. mentions "family values":

[wickerwoman]

Family Values have no place in government. Family Values are your own private beliefs and they should stay just that. Your *own* *private* beliefs.

What do we need in politics? "Neighborhood Values". The whole point of government is to allow us to live together without killing each other and (ideally) for our mutual benefit.

Family Values says if you're not like me get out of my sight. Family Values tells us we can hole up in our little suburban castles and ignore everything else. Family Values says we can beat our kids and teach them rubbish and curse at our neighbors and feel superior to all those "others" out there.

What happened to Neighborhood Values? You know, the ones that say when your neighbor is starving invite him over for dinner? The ones that say don't steal from your neighbor's shop? The ones that say talk before you shoot?

This is the buzzword I want to hear coming out of every Dem's mouth in 2006. Don't let them get away with this family values crap. Politics isn't about me and mine, it's about us and ours. And we shouldn't be ashamed to say it loud and clear.

[KitchenWitch]

1. well said!

Nominated

[Melodybe]

2. How bout we also add, oh, just like the Bush's, all of their children

are alcoholic felons who have no respect for the law.

[baron j]

3. I'm weary of morality and law being defined by adherents to a

particular flavor Christianity. Hello, you fools! Christianity isn't the only religion or belief system in the USA. Nor are we required to believe in any system or believe at all, for that matter.

For example, let's look at same-sex marriage: certain types of Christians seem to feel that the word "marriage" was created--and is owned--by them. Worse, are those who would concede a "civil union" as long as it isn't considered a "marriage". Why is it that only their group gets to decide what a "marriage" constitutes? Why not ask a Zoroastrian...a Secular Humanist...or a follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

[MADem]

10. Your point about the definition of marriage is well taken

There has been a horrible marriage of incompetence and greed in government today...that's a marriage worth banning, frankly.

[Bluebear]

4. BEZDOMNY for Congress! n/t

[xchrom]

5. i hate that fuckin phrase.

[Guava Jelly]

6. Family values are like wine

you have lets say mad dog 20-20 thats how we value the poor familys
then you have a mid range house wine thats how we treat the middle class
then you have the good stuff the 16 dollar a glass wine thats the value of rich white republicans.

[OneTwentyoNine]

7. Family values....like the ones the Jeb Bush family show?

Seems like every week a new arrest or a police report filed. Yup,there's your Conservative family values....

[shaniqua6392]

8. I could not have said it better myself.

Forward your post to Howard Dean and all the Dems you can think of. Maybe someone will pick up on this brilliant idea. Maybe. We can only hope because it is all we have right now.

[TNDemo]

9. Family values all involve sex,

which Republicans are completely obsessed with. I think Wes Clark even said that last week.

[lostnfound]

11. Awesome post! Flies in the face of a nation of 'isolated consumers'

which is a critical part of how we are divided and conquered.

[Toots]

12. Just Remember how much Criticism over "It Takes a Village"

They make no bones about their disdain for neighborhoods or villages or government in general. They only believe in everyone for themselves and why help anyone unless you get something in return. We are dealing with a cult mentality here and need to deal appropriately.

[izzybeans]

13. Agreed. Next time hand them this.

http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/pop_fam.html

I don't support everything in this document, but it's a start. (i.e. their position on divorce and the assumption as to what constitutes the family). I do however agree with the necessity to create more family friendly economic policies, because that is the only real "threat" to families (all flavors of them).

[CrispyQ]

14. Family values = MY family is valuable; YOURS is not.

I love the idea of Neighborhood Values. Great post!!!

Our country is so wrapped up in individualism that we have forgotten that it community that provides the infrastructure for us to be individuals.

[belle]

15. "If you value families, why is it that everything you do hurts my family?"

"I can't raise a family without a decent living wage. You wanted to get rid of overtime, and even the minimum wage which isn't enough to live on as it is. You want to gut my kids' chances of getting an education so that they can get a decent job. Your favoring of big businesses and the very rich means that even *with* an education it's harder and harder to get a "real" job. I can't support my family without an income, or health care, or even some kind of child care so I can at least work my two or three jobs without leaving my kid home alone. I can't support my family if I know a natural (or man-made) disaster could wipe out everything I've worked for, and you're not doing anything at all to help prevent the conditions that make such a disaster likelier, and you won't or can't help when we're in direst need.

Oh, and that's just assuming that I have a "traditional" family. If I'm gay, and raising children with my partner, you're not supporting our family; you're ripping it apart, with no thought as to what's genuinely going to be best for our children, let alone us.

If I'm a woman and unlucky enough to get pregnant when I can't afford it--mentally, emotionally, fiscally, even physically--you want to force me to have the baby even though you make it harder and harder for the kid to have a chance at a decent life, let alone me. You make it harder and harder for me to get adequate prenatal care, or to have the baby safely and comfortably, even if I *am* married and middle class. You *also* make it harder and harder for me to get birth control, which makes no sense if your real concern is about the children and not, oh, say, whether or not I'm having sex without your approval.

You say you value my family, but you let your big business friends make our water and air more and more poisonous through their environmentally irresponsible. All this so they can earn even more money. What does a CEO's stock portfolio have to do with the mercury levels in my water? Your "relaxed" regulations for your big business friends also mean that we're far more likely to get sick from bad meat.

If you value my family, why do you let my sons and daughters fight unnecessary wars for you? Why do you then refuse to even pay for adequate protection when they're over there? And then, after we've made that ultimate sacrifice for you, you can barely bring yourself to acknowledge that we exist. That my beautiful child is dead, died fighting for what she believed was her country.

Mr. President; Senator; Reverend. With all due respect: My family was better off before you started valuing it.

[SpartacusSC]

18. Awesome answer Belle.....

...that sums it up for me as well.

[IndyJones]

16. I like it! Great idea.

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. Absolutely, central to Christianity, incidentally.

I mean "neighbour"hood values of course.

[CrispyQ]

19. Bumper sticker idea:

Democrats: the party of
Neighborhood Values
We care about your family too!

[Gold Metal Flake]

20. Community Values.

Might "community" be a better word? How can we test these phrases they way the repukes test every little word or phrase?