Notes From D.R. | Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

Like the last two Presidential elections, the 2008 contest will be decided on “moral values”. The only question is, which “moral values” will go over?

The “progressive” website MediaMatters.org throws fits whenever reporters use the term “values voters” to describe social conservatives. The site’s operators argue that liberals vote their values just as much as conservatives do. They have a legitimate point.

For blue-state Americans, government-run health care is a “moral value”. So is leaving Iraq as soon as possible. Maintaining Roe v. Wade is also a “moral value” to some.

Right and left have fundamentally different definitions of morality, and every election is a contest to determine which form of morality will hold sway in Washington over the next four years. The problem for the right is that, as of now, there’s a seemingly strong belief that the moral vision of the past four years is unacceptable.

Usually, the right benefits from the moral tenor of the times. Those who loathed Carter’s morality embraced Reagan’s vision. Twenty years later, Americans disgusted by the moral vision of the Clinton-Gore years placed their faith in Bush’s view of the way things ought to be.

Fair or not, a sense of buyer’s remorse has swept the nation: a belief in the supposed perfidy of the Bush years is as strong as Barack Obama’s momentum. Americans are an anxious, unhappy lot these days, upset over gas prices too high, stock markets too volatile, wars too long. Americans demand comfort from Washington, and get very angry when they don’t receive it.

Remember how angry folks were in 1992? It seems as though we are witnessing history’s sequel, with a forty-something Democrat preaching hope and change once again facing off against a noble Republican who is nevertheless regarded as representing the retrograde.  America bought the feel-good product before; it is likely to do so again.

Obama represents the moral left, just as Reagan and Bush represented the moral right. Not since Carter has the Democrat Party nominated someone who can so clearly link Christianity to progressivism in his rhetoric. Granted, his “moral vision” is predicated upon ignoring issues such as an unborn child’s right to live in favor of more pressing progressive proposals.  Nevertheless, Obama’s “moral vision” has served as the centerpiece of his candidacy.

The religious overtones of the Obama campaign are not without accident. Obama has convinced legions of Americans that he is doing Jesus’ work, that Christ would endorse his progressive vision. He is no different from the Republicans of a generation ago, the ones who declared that God was a registered Republican. He has simply decided to change the Almighty’s party affiliation.

There is no doubt that Obama kneels to pray every night. He does not pray for the fetus about to be removed from the mother’s womb, nor does he pray for the businessman who is about to be put under by excessive taxation. Yet he does pray. He is a Christian. He has faith in God, and in the left.

This will be a difficult man for Republicans to defeat. Republicans are used to secular Democrats, ones who prattle on about their “faith tradition”, ones who take photo-ops with huge Bibles before committing adultery in the Oval Office. Obama is quite different. It appears that he has come along at the right place and time, with the right (left? wrong?) message.

Obama seems to be a perfect Messiah figure for this age. He promises to heal the gas prices, raise the taxes on the rich, cast neoconservatism out of the White House temple. It seems that no amount of scourging, no amount of political crucifixion, can prevent him from rising to the sky.

Republicans have to be wondering what manner of man this is. How could someone with such a vague message, such inexperience, such hard-left views, become the people’s savior? How did this happen?

The Church of Obama is certainly preaching a false gospel: this charismatic preacher’s sermons are filled with the same failed ideas that damaged America in the past. Yet American history is filled with stories of those who embraced leaders filled with charm, whose political visions ultimately caused harm. Republicans can sound the warning, but will America really hear the bell? Obama’s pews are filling up so quickly that there may not be enough time to create a culture of disbelief.