The Family Values Conference is now over, and having listened to the Republican candidates grovel and kiss up to their issues I think it is clear now what a Conservative is: someone who imposes his or her religious beliefs on everyone else.
Now, this is strange to me, since they constantly say they want to restore the values of the Founding Fathers. I don’t believe any of the Founding Fathers were Southern Baptists, which appears to be the leading religion of these Family Values folks.
Nor do I believe that the Founding Fathers ever distinguished between Right To Life and Right To Choose… nor did they make it part of the Constitution, although these Family Values folks insist that they are the main supporters of said document.
What amazes me more is how people who are not from the Southern Baptist religious community, like Romney and Giuliani, assure the assembled multitude of the similarity of their beliefs… although they are not technically similar at all. And many of those assembled buy it (although those attending voted for Huckabee, a Baptist Preacher, in the straw poll).
So whose values represent Americans, really? And whose values represent those who put together the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? And whose values support the maintaining of life – I mean by not sending our sons and daughters to die for oil? And whose values allow for the participation in our society by Jews, Moslems, Episcopalians, Buddhists, and, yes, atheists and agnostics? And whose values support politicians who don’t lie about WMDs?
If I were to vote for American Values today, it would be for a Democrat who supported an end to the war, freedom of (and from) religion, and participation by all aspects of the American people.