Morality in Politics

There are a number of interesting pieces on the web concerning morality, religion and national politics. Here is a decent overview from the LA Times; it includes the statistic that although Born Again Christians constitute 38% of the electorate, they made up over 50 percent of the apparent number of alleged voters in this election.

It is probably hard for many people to believe that Born Again Christians are such a large group. We have our doubts as well, and we'll keep our eyes open for skeptical analyses. Still, it's worth considering.

This article also includes figures that show a larger proportion of voters believe the war in Iraq is a moral issue (42%) than same-sex marriage (9%). Too bad they didn't vote that way, apparently.

But this and other pieces indicate that progressives have room to position poverty and greed, for example, as moral issues. That they are moral issues seems transparent, but some are saying that they need to be articulated more clearly and forcefully as moral issues in a coherent unified way.

This does hit on one subject the Dash brothers agreed should have been raised more forcefully in the campaign: the Iraq prison abuses. Not only was that a moral outrage, but it followed directly from this administration's policies and philosophies, and evidenced its general incompetence. It also speaks to the dangers of privatizing conduct of crucial government activity. That is another moral issue: blackening the name of America and of Americans by ceding government responsibilities to favored corporations. The moral issue is responsibility.

Moderates, Liberals Hear Call to Morality Debate