Alter Wishes for 'Demise' of 'Values Voters' in Fall Elections

What does the "N-word" racial epithet and the pollster term "values voter" have in common? According to Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, by some elastic calisthenics of the brain, the word "values" needs to be drained of its poison, deprived of its "sting" against liberals, deflated of any political advantage, so that liberals can be seen as just as morality-oriented as conservatives. In describing his latest column, on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning program on Monday, Alter said this "values voter" term is "driving me nuts," that certain people have a "monopoly" on "so-called traditional values." Alter also displayed an intense desire for the "demise" of "values voters" in the fall election.

[This item, by Tim Graham, was posted Monday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: http://newsbusters.org/node/8363 ]

In his phone interview with Imus in the October 16 6:30am EDT half hour, Alter told Imus: "You see my Lenny Bruce reference? I try to work him into Newsweek whenever I can. Remember the old routine that he did where he'd use the N- word over and over and over again and then he'd say if we can just say it all the time, it will lose its meaning?...You know, no little black girl can be made tor cry any more, say it so much it becomes meaningless, well. That's what I want to have happen with this word 'values,' 'values voters,' which is just driving me nuts. The idea that somehow certain people have a monopoly on values and that, you know, if you are not with them on these issues, that you somehow [mock expression of horror] 'you don't share our values.' And you're not just wrong, but someone morally inferior if you're on the other side. And I hope this election is going to mark the demise of the values voters, this idea that people who feel so strongly, you know about these so-called traditional values, that they don't determine the election the way were seen to have the last time around."

Whoa. That's an interesting use of words. "Demise" might sound like 'decline,' but it primarily means 'death.' Is he wishing death on social conservatives? Or is he just verbally clumsy? (Don't tell me Alter would let Sen. George Allen off the carpet with a verbal miscue like that.) On the one hand, Alter wants to declare that social conservatives will not win out as they did last time, but then he has to claim not only that their traditional values are "so-called," but that they were merely "seen" to have been decisive. So if they weren't decisive, why is Alter so "nuts" that they might influence the election again this year?

He wrapped up: "And the indications are they have less clout this time out. You know, there are a lot of reports that they are going to stay home which is bad news for the Republicans."

You can clearly hear through his irritation, saying social conservatives, go home. Religious right-wingers, get out. Stop ruining our liberal utopia, where abortion is widely available and gays getting married is the highest expression of our societal progress. Here's Alter's festival of wishful thinking in the Newsweek column suggesting that Republicans will stew in their own disgusting social-conservative juices: "Now fallout from the Mark Foley story is giving the GOP establishment a taste of its own sanctimonious medicine, as Democrats tsk-tsk their way back into power. While it's hard to imagine many incumbents losing their seats over the Foley issue alone, the lingering subtext will likely dampen conservative turnout and could help tip close races. Publicity about an influential gay Republican subculture in Washington makes the GOP's pandering on gay marriage less persuasive. And the story adds to the overall sense that the current congressional leadership has failed to offer oversight on a series of moral issues, from corruption to burdening our children with debt to protecting minors from predators in what is supposed to be the 'Daddy' party. "More likely, the word will turn into a political football pulled so hard by each team that it finally deflates. Good. That could help lead us back to the hard policy choices we face and the values we have in common...'Values' should be a slice of American apple pie, not a wedge. When all voters are 'values voters,' the term will lose its sting, just as Lenny Bruce would have wanted."

For Alter's piece in the October 23 edition of Newsweek, "The Myth of the 'Values' Voter: The term is loaded and unfair. It implies that people who 'do not share our values' aren't just wrong but morally inferior," go to: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15266550/site/newsweek/

Liberals like Alter profess that religious liberals have a different agenda to press, to shame conservatives into realizing they also have a biblical duty to assist the poor, a different set of values to vote on. But isn't it obvious to them that this is exactly the "wedge" that they've applied against conservatives since, mmm, the Great Depression? That conservatives didn't share their "values" of assisting the poor? That they cornered the market on virtue and compassion? Alter isn't sick of "values" having a definition. He's sick of it having a conservative definition. The liberal media want to rewrite the dictionary so that everyone uses their language with their meaning, and they can't stand it when conservative rhetoric wins with voters.

http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/1samuel/1samuel8.htm

6
Samuel was displeased when they asked for a king to judge them. He prayed to the LORD, however,
7
who said in answer: "Grant the people's every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.
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As they have treated me constantly from the day I brought them up from Egypt to this day, deserting me and worshiping strange gods, so do they treat you too.
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Now grant their request; but at the same time, warn them solemnly and inform them of the rights of the king who will rule them."

Secular leaders without Judeo-Christian values chose sin. Valueless voters chose secular leaders. Sometimes, a political party becomes noteworthy for separating its wayward members from their organization.

Sometimes, the political party brings the reformed back into the party after proving penance that fit the offense.

God invented forgiveness. We are all sinners. Redemption is a noteworthy characteristic. An apologetic offender shows strong character to admit offense and resign from leadership until they've conquered their vice. President Bush overcame his sin of gluttony (alcohol abuse) to redeem himself and be the leader he is.

It's righteous to defend the penitent, but it's wicked to defend sin.

We live in the time were the hearts of mankind are revealed to all. The hearts of our leaders lay exposed as well as the hearts of voters. There is right and wrong. Government has become more than a collection basket of taxes to build public works. Voters must discern the hearts of those they chose. Present human leadership doesn't limit its quest to mere money. Human leadership enslaved to sin's grasp becomes a puppet their vice's demands.

Mankind, boastful of its sin, will inflict its wickedness on all with massive recruitment and persecution. Forced recruitment comes in many forms:
- abortion and sexual addiction,
- perversion of natural procreation and even robbing nuclear families of their children,
- Frankenstein science to reproduce human life with unnatural qualities,
- draconian financial slavery (forced insurance against the unrealistic possibility of avoiding all death and injury),
- drug abuse through medical dependency and social welfare,
- disparaging fatalism (like recruitment for suicidal missions or bombings),
- avoiding the appointment of judges and massive litigation to obliterate any form of justice (which leads to vigilante rage),
- and absolute enslavement of the human will.

This has happened because mankind has rejected God for the imperfections of human leadership. We've chosen ourselves for a savior...then complain when we prove ourselves imperffect. It gets worse in Hell, but how the the Biblical warning go?
10
Samuel delivered the message of the LORD in full to those who were asking him for a king.
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He told them: "The rights of the king who will rule you will be as follows: He will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses, and they will run before his chariot.
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He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers. He will set them to do his plowing and his harvesting, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.
13
He will use your daughters as ointment-makers, as cooks, and as bakers.
14
He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials.
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He will tithe your crops and your vineyards, and give the revenue to his eunuchs and his slaves.
16
He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best oxen and your asses, and use them to do his work.
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He will tithe your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves.
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When this takes place, you will complain against the king whom you have chosen, but on that day the LORD will not answer you."

If conservatives complain about our present leadership, who is righteously fixed against sin in comparison to his opposition, then how would the nation complain when we've fallen to bitterness with leadership so firmly in the grasp of sin? The fatalism and atrocities would be as bad or worse than what Germans experienced in the last years of WW2. Considering how the French suffered their defeated Post-Revolution Napoleonic Empire, any losing nation now is a progressively worse prospect on a hyper-exponential scale. Those with an absolute hatred for mankind (as if we are a plague upon the planet) would demand such an end for all nations--especially America.

So, if evil cannot cleave us from the Grace of God, then it shall sow its unmerciful misery. Let's not allow evil any measure for such an opportunity.

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