From the Washington Post study:
Big majorities in both parties see tolerance of other’s lifestyles as important, but Republicans and Democrats take opposite positions on whether changing mores should affect personal convictions. A majority of Democrats agree with the proposition that as the world changes, people should adjust their morals and values. An even bigger majority of Republicans disagree with that statement, with most saying so strongly. Far more Republicans than Democrats say Americans in general are too tolerant of behavior that once was considered wrong or immoral.
Respond. Are we far too tolerant of behavior that was once considered wrong or immoral? Examples please.
This whole argument has become hopelessly skewed. People see fatherless families, drug use, underemployment, the drop in high school graduation rates, molestation crimes, etc., and somehow make the leap to societal changes since the “hippie revolution” days being responsible. Folks should remember that “traditional values” in the America of the past didn’t include women voting or being equal in the workforce, equality for people of color, environmental protections, birth control so that women could be equal to men in the sexual realm, equality for gay/lesbian Americans, etc., etc. The extreme conservatives (who are mostly also religious extremists like Ryan) continually refine their extreme social proposals (like the Ryan budget) to try to make them more palatable to average people, but we aren’t there yet, according to polls.
There’s no question that we have serious social problems that are dragging the country down, financially and morally, but I think the answer is much more nuanced and complicated. To use a broad brush and say we need to stop legal abortion, de-legitimize gay people, put all kids in religious based (charter) schools and bring religion into all phases of community life as a cure to the ills above is a way to force a particular life-view on folks, in my view.
What is the answer, then? Well, as I say, that’s a much more complicated problem and it’ll take bigger minds than mine to solve. Addressing drug use (not just filling for-profit prisons with offenders) and lack of job opportunities in the inner cities would be a start, as would seriously attacking the education crisis. What else?
Bravo, middleman. Nice start! I don’t know the answers either.
It is important for us to realize that people have ethics and morals who aren’t the members of the traditional values crew.