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Carol Platt Liebau - Columnist
Carol
Platt Liebau is editorial director and a senior member
of theOneRepublic and CaliforniaRepublic editorial
board. She is an attorney, political analyst and commentator
based in San Marino, CA, and has appeared on the Fox
News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Orange County News Channel,
Cox Cable and a variety of radio programs throughout
the United States. A graduate of Princeton University
and Harvard Law School, Carol Platt Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law
Review. Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com [go
to Liebau index]
 Of
Dubious “Values”
A Party that Stands for Anything Stands for Nothing...
[Carol
Platt Liebau] 11/22/04
Since
the morning of November 3, much ink has been spilled as pundits
analyze
the meaning of an exit poll asserting that 22%
of the electorate had voted based on their “moral values.” As
others like Charles Krauthammer have pointed out, the question
was flawed – it asked about the one issue that mattered
most in the presidential vote; “moral values,” encompassing
anything from abortion to greed was the only multiple choice
response, compared to specific alternatives like “jobs” or “Iraq” or “terrorism.” In
fact, taken together, “Iraq” (at 15%) and “terrorism” (at
19%) were more important than moral values.
And that conclusion
makes sense. Clearly, the most salient issues of this election
centered on war and peace – an equation
that favored the Republicans. But it’s important not to
understate the “Red State” sense that, in America,
there is much in the culture that has gone awry. Whether it’s
the display of Janet Jackson’s breast during the Super
Bowl, or the ACLU’s campaign to drive the Boy Scouts into
obscurity, or Target’s decision to evict Salvation Army
bell ringers from their parking lots this Christmas season, many
Americans have begun to feel that their values are under constant
siege from an out-of-touch cultural elite that neither understands
nor respects what matters most to them.
With partisans including the CBS and New York Times on the east
coast to Hollywood on the west, the Democrats are indisputably
the party of the cultural elite. And on some level, many ordinary
Americans in both red states and blue hold this fact against
them.
But there is one more
reason that “values” issues
have come back to haunt the Democrats – and we were forcibly
reminded of him last week: Bill Clinton. Throughout the ‘90’s,
Democrats defended Clinton slavishly – from draft dodging
to not inhaling to the travel office firings to Whitewater to
Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers and Juanita Broaddrick. From
political donors’ White House sleepovers to the missing
files found in Hillary’s closet to LippoGate, Johnny Chung
and political donations from the Chinese to “I did not
have sex with that woman” to the Marc Rich pardon. Nominally “pro-woman” politicians
like Senator Barbara Boxer – who had made her reputation
marching from the House to the Senate demanding a hearing for
Anita Hill – revealed themselves to be hypocrites, defending
a President who lied under oath and was credibly accused of rape.
And other Democrats, like Al Gore, found themselves excusing
behavior that they themselves knew was contemptible, wrong and
deeply damaging to America.
Democrats always,
always defended Clinton. Americans liked his charisma, charm – and the skyrocketing stock market – and
Clinton’s most visible adversaries paid the price. Some
of the most reviled figures of the ‘90’s were Newt
Gingrich – who retired from politics when Clinton’s
party gained seats in the midst of impeachment – and the
hapless Ken Starr, saddled with an investigation he had tried
to renounce when he was offered the Pepperdine Law School deanship.
Other Clinton political casualties included Congressman Jim Rogan,
a member of the House impeachment team, who lost his congressional
seat in 1998.
But finally Clinton
left The White House – and memories
of his personal charm began to fade. And in a recessionary, post-9/11
world, the luster of his tenure began to tarnish. Perhaps without
even consciously realizing it, the American people began to suspect
that a political party that would stand for anything really stands
for nothing. Over time, the Clinton years, with the drip, drip,
drip of constant lies and scandal, left a bitter taste in many
Red State mouths. And now the Democrats are paying the price.
No, “moral values” alone – whether the term
refers to gay marriage, abortion or even concerns about greed
and materialism – didn’t sweep President Bush to
victory. But the security-based, pro-Republican tide was certainly
swelled by a growing sense that the Democratic Party that defended
Bill Clinton with such ferocious intensity – and celebrated
his tenure at their convention – was unlikely either to
understand or address most Americans’ deep and growing
concerns about our increasingly polluted culture. tOR
Columnist
Carol Platt Liebau is a political analyst, commentator and CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial
director based in San Marino, CA. Ms. Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com
copyright
2004
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