Values are for Everybody

George Will has written a column attacking the idea that “values voters” are conservatives who oppose abortion and gay marriage, and support crosses in public places. The term gains acceptance because both the right and the right's opponents are happy to link conservatives with "values."

Yet as Will notes:

Today's liberal agenda includes preservation, even expansion, of the welfare state in its current configuration in order to strengthen an egalitarian ethic of common provision. Liberals favor taxes and other measures to produce a more equal distribution of income. They may value equality indiscriminately, but they vote their values.

Why would liberals be willing to forego an association with “values”? Will doesn’t ask, but it’s worth considering.

I share Will’s view that everybody has values. Liberals view social conservatives' opposition to abortion and gay marriage, and their flaunting of their Christian faith, as throwbacks to an earlier era. To educated liberals, religion is a protective shield employed by those unable to accept the lessons of science, a rigid belief system that flies in the face of facts.

For the generation of liberals that lived through the 1960s—baby boomers who are now the dominant group in America—moving past religion was part of their life experience. They identify with scientific education, not ignorant religion; with tolerance, not rigidity. They don't want to be tied to any “values” straitjacket, because it seems too "religious".

But as Will suggests, it’s not whether you have values, it's what your values are.