This is a NH Family Watch ARCHIVE ARTICLE

This is a NH Family Watch ARCHIVE ARTICLE

Morality in U.S. Politics Sinks to a New Low

By Ray White

Posted 1998

The recent scandal unfolding in Washington concerning President Bill Clinton and his alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky has brought to the surface a very disturbing outlook on the political system that is being voiced by the American public. According to polling data, it appears that the public at large no longer care about the private lives and personal deeds (and misdeeds) of their elected officials, as long as they are "comfortable" economically. Many on the left are hailing this as a sign that the American people have finally become "more enlightened" and have "matured" in their viewpoints, while others who believe in traditional values are shocked at this revelation. The
polling data shows that while most Americans do not like Bill Clinton, however, despite the many scandals that have swirled around his presidency, an overwhelming majority (between 65 - 70%) give him good approval ratings and apparently like his policies. What can this be attributed to?

First, it appears that the American people now have a very short attention span, which the current leadership loves to exploit. For several years the Clinton administration has followed a now predictable pattern in defense of any ethical charges levied against them. First they attack and try to demonize their opponents. Next, they go into the "drip-drip-drip" mode of leaking slowly the details of any wrongdoing. By the time the full story is known, the public has already been softened-up by the leaks and is usually bored. This is certainly a symptom of the country's "I've got to have it now" attitude and "remote control" type of attention span that we have now developed. The Clinton
administration has applied this trick to the Whitewater, Travelgate, and now Monica Lewinsky controversies.

However, not all the blame lies with Clinton and the Democrats. Indeed it is probably the Republicans who are the most to blame for this new outlook that the polling data is showing, for it is the Republicans who have failed time and again to take the moral high road with regard to
public policy. Constant waffling on the anti-tax, pro-life, pro-family, small government agenda that is clearly outlined in their platforms, but rarely practiced in their policies, have led to a cynicism amongst the "moral majority" that once voted Republican. As a result, most of these people, who would be the salt and light of the political earth, have just dropped out of the process leaving behind either immoral or, at best, amoral (I don't care) voters.

Dr. James Dobson chastised the Republican Congress at a convention of conservative leaders in Arizona a few weeks ago. Dobson, who heads the Focus on the Family Ministry, warned that if the Republican Congress continued to betray conservative evangelical voters, he would abandon
the Republican party and "do everything I can to take as many people with me as possible". In his speech, Dr. Dobson said that he may even take a leave of absence from the ministry so that he can devote himself to political advocacy. He also said he intended to sound the same overtly political message in a speech before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in June. Noting that the Republican party is built on a alliance of economic conservatives who are concerned with
issues such as tax reform and a balanced budget, and social conservatives who care more about pressing social issues such as homosexuality, abortion, pornography and a decline in morals, Dobson stated that social conservatives will either come to dominate or abandon
the party.

Dobson was not afraid to name names in his speech, citing Republican leaders such as Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senators Rick Santorum John Ashcroft as those who "when they moved into power, moved immediately to insult" conservative Christian supporters, by supporting such people as pro-abortion, anti-family Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, and failing to speak out against homosexuality and funding sex education in schools. Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council noted that Republicans are "constantly reading polls saying the party has be
tolerant, (that) it shouldn't look judgmental, but a great party ought to stop looking at polls and find its voice for the people that have given it the power it has got." This writer used this very column a
number of months ago to point out that it is quite possible that there is no longer any home for Christian conservatives in the Republican party both at the state level here in New Hampshire and certainly at the Federal level that Dr. Dobson was speaking to.

The bottom line here is that the corrosive combination of a government that has constantly attacked the moral underpinnings of the country for 35 years through immoral legislation and atheistic court decisions, combined with the total alienation of the average pro-family voter by a Republican party that ought to be their ally and not their enemy, has combined to leave the entire political system in a swamp of immorality from which it is questionable if it can escape.

We also have not escaped this same type of thinking in New Hampshire. Governor Jeanne Shaheen, despite her promotion of abortion and homosexuality, enjoys huge approval ratings in polls conducted, often over 70%. Are there really less than 30% of all those who live in the state shocked by her far-left views regarding abortion, homosexuality and statism, or are we just really comfortable economically and those "divisive" social issues don't really matter anymore? The Christian community needs to examine itself regarding these questions??

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