American Values

I got really disgusted in the last presidential election over this issue of "values voting". Here's what I wanted the Democrats to say:

Whatever happened to "American Values"? Honesty, integrity, nonconformity, tolerance, freedom, etc., etc. Whatever happened to "I cannot tell a lie" and "The buck stops here"? Whatever happened to transparency, dissent, debate, and keeping your religious ideas to yourself, respecting that others have different ideas? Whatever happened to the lessons of Vietnam, the Powell Doctrine, and the USA being the good guys? When did the freedom of speech mean that if you say something against the administration you'd have your life torn apart?

I feel like the answer to "our values" is "Our Values"-- American Values. The lessons that we learned when we studied George Washington and Patrick Henry. The values of honesty and standing up for human decency and what is right. The values of hard work, sacrifice, and taking care of our fellow man so that we all live better.

Speaking of which, why can't the conservative corporate world realize that if they support public transportation, their employees can get to work on time? (Here in Austin the conservatives tried to kill light rail, saying that the rich would pay with their taxes but only the poor would use the system.) That if there is a good public school system, they will have educated people to hire? That if the health care system is repaired, their employees won't be out sick all the time? That if they pay a decent wage, people can afford to buy their crap?

There is an answer to the values issue. Hit them with the idea of American Values. I may not be fleshing the idea out enough here, but in essence, I believe that AV would appeal to more voters. The social conservatives might or might not get on board, but it would give them an alternative, we might get some of them. And it would attract the rest of us who don't share their views but also don't want to be labelled as amoral or lacking any kind of value system. We have a value system-- and it includes everyone. It includes the "values voters" because it provides for them to have their own beliefs, while not excluding those who have different ones.

Furthermore, when measured against these American Values, this administration falls on its face. I don't need to delineate all their horrible mistakes, you can read CNN for that. But just taking "I cannot tell a lie" from the first George W.-- Washington-- and there is every reason in the world to fire them. The secrecy, lies, and spin-- combined with the incompetence-- is un-American. Let's hang them with that. Not that they aren't patriotic, I'm sure they love America as much as anyone else, but like a bad boyfriend, they love us and fail us at the same time. We are all human and none of us can perfectly live up to an ideal, but it's still worth having an ideal. Let's measure them against our American Heroes of yore. Let's hold them to a standard-- not the standard of evangelical Christians or fundamentalists of any religion, but to the standard of American values and tradition.