Wednesday, March 30, 2005

American Values: Kevin Drum finally found the authoritative data to show what was the defining issue of the last presidential election. No, it warn't "two dudes kissing". It was terrorism, by far.

I just hope that people pay attention to this. All that talk about "moral values" as the most important factor was distracting. Even though the term "morals" is so vague, people automatically attributed it to gay marriage. It seemed liberals latched onto the moral-values phrase just to make themselves feel better after the election, as if to say, "We weren't wrong. We just lost to a bunch of damn homophobic rednecks."

To be sure, homophobia is still a big problem in this country, and gay marriage was a hot-button issue. It will take time to convince conservatives that gay marriage isn't any more dangerous than interracial marriage. Liberals need to keep fighting on that front.

In the mean time, Democrats need to get their national security credentials in order. Americans want an aggressive fight against terrorists and the nations that support them. They also believe that the United States can still do some good in this world and don't like being called imperialist and evil.

If the Democrats want to regain power, they're going to have to recognize this and shake off all the ultra-liberals who see the U.S. government as the enemy and the Islamist terrorists as misunderstood.