This is an old debate, but it bothers me and I have a blog: I hate it when conservatives who advocate a mixture of anti-choice policies on reproductive rights, intolerance for LGBTQ Americans and their rights, and a view that their religion needs to be held preeminent by the state are called "values voters." What set me off was this Politico poll story: Apparently, the Tea Party is split between libertarians and these so-called value voters.Libertarians might suggest to you, though, that they value liberty and seek to vote for the policies and politicians who support their conception of liberty. Liberals would note that they value religious freedom, the freedom of women to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, and the idea that LGTBQ Americans deserve equal treatment before the law. Most of us realize that nearly all political debates between the "values voters" and others comes down to clashing of fundamental principles, a question of what's more important, preserving an idealized social order or expanding the freedom of Americans to live their lives as they choose.
Religious conservatives do not have a monopoly on values, although I'm sure their pollsters are pleased that the media seem to think that they do. Everyone who participates in the political process is exercising support for the ideas that are important to them, and, a priori, some of these values are not intrinsically better than others. (I'm sounding very Rawlsian right now.) Please, just call the "values voters" religious conservatives and be done with it.
-- Tim Fernholz
