Values Voters

The Family Research Council is bringing 1400 conservative activists to Washington, D.C. for a Value Voter's Summit. Now, I wasn't invited to participate, and I haven't seen the agenda, but I'm guessing that there will be plenty of attention to sexuality issues.

But a poll released on Wednesday by the Center for American Values, a program of People for the American Way, found that issues such as abortion and marriage equality rank LAST in importance to the vast majority of Americans when deciding how to vote. Indeed, although this poll of more than 2500 randomly sampled U.S. citizens found that a majority of Americans support stem cell research, and marriage or civil unions for gay couples, 85% believe that issues like poverty and affordable health care are more imortant than issues like abortion and same sex marriage. Indeed, in thinking about voting, abortion and marriage equality come in dead last on how a person would decide to vote for a member of Congress. When people say that they "vote their values" more "people think of the honesty, integrity, and responsibility of the candidate than any other values."

Despite what the Family Research Council would have you believe this weekend, this poll shows that we are ALL values voters -- and a majority of us think that loving our neighbors and caring for the poor are the values that are most important -- not just for individuals but for government and religious leaders as well. Congratulations to People For the American Way for taking back the term "values voters."