Values-based voters, 2006

We’ve now entered the final days of the election campaign season for 2006. Do you remember the exit poll information in 2004 that resulted in political analysts declaring that the election was decided by a special group – the values-based voters? As I recall, in the 2004 election year, a “values-based voter” was a person who voted for one or several of the following:

Stricter legal restrictions on abortion, stricter legal restrictions on immigration, and especially illegal immigrants, increased, and perhaps unlimited, funding for both the war on terror and the war in Iraq, repeal of the inheritance tax for estates larger than $2 million for an individual or $4 million for a married couple, limitations on civil and human rights in order to promote patriotism, and support of a state constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality.

Well, I fail to qualify as a “values-based voter” on each of these measures. If I disagree with the ideology of the coalition of values-based voters, does that somehow make me a valueless voter? Does it mean that I do not have values? American people of deep faith and good will may reach very different conclusions about public policy and right action, but they all operate from a values-based center. It is time for mainstream Americans, progressive citizens and religious liberals to claim our legitimate ownership of our values and our deep support for life and the well-being of all people, our whole planet and all of creation.

I am in sympathy with the “traditional values” that former President Jimmy Carter describes in “Our Endangered Values, America’s Moral Crisis.” He speaks of the moral core of Americans as our common bond and the source of our strength and appeal to other people around the world.

This is the core of America that has characterized us as nation for two centuries. These values are both religious and civil. In a nutshell, here are those traditional values: compassion, truth, service, kindness, justice, generosity, humility and love.

These are the values that have made us both strong and worthy. We need to have values that help us to be slow to pronounce judgment against others who struggle to do the best they can and quick to offer a helping hand to those in need. We do not need to be soft on terrorism or weak in our national defense to practice these values. In fact, these are the very values that have made and can make again our national defense and opposition to terrorism credible with the rest of the world because they are not based on arrogance, greed and self-righteousness.

They are not based on an ethic or a theology that suggests that God, by any name, favors some while condemning others. They do not bow to any religious or civil structure that seeks to order human value based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, economic status or any other category.

If we share these values, we may not always agree about public policy, national or civil direction, how to spend our tax dollars, or who should be elected to public office. In fact, I’d be very surprised if we did. But, if we share these values, we will be much more able to talk with each other, to learn from each other, to forgive each other and ourselves when we make mistakes, and to forge alliances that promote life, health, well-being, advancement and peace for all of earth’s people.

The question facing us as a nation and as individuals this Nov. 7 is not whether or not the election will be determined by values-based voters – it will be. The real question for our nation this November is which values will guide us voters as we go to the polls and cast our ballots. As for me, I’m keeping the words and encouragement of Jimmy Carter firmly in my heart and mind. Yes, I am a values-based voter and those values are compassion, truth, service, kindness, justice, generosity, humility and love.

Please, on Nov. 7, be a values-based voter. This is what makes us strong; this is what makes us the most popular nation on earth. Let’s not squander that admiration by trivializing the values of the many while lifting up as sacred the values of a few.

Be a proud and practicing values-based voter and be proud of the values that guide you along your way. Shout it from the mountaintops.

Vote in love, not fear. Vote with compassion, not greed. Vote your values and know that the rest of us will be doing the same.

The Rev. Margaret A. Beckman lives in Dedham and serves a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Pittsfield. She writes as an individual citizen and does not speak for the congregation.