According exit polls, the number one issue cited by voters isn't the war on terrorism, Iraq, or the economy. It's moral values.

Slightly more than one in five voters chose moral values as the most important issue to them. These voters broke four to one for the president.

Eleven states featured ballot initiatives seeking bans on gay marriage. The results are in for ten of those ballot initiatives. Voters in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Utah--all ten states--passed the initiatives banning gay marriage.

It's 1 a.m., and all indicators suggest that George W. Bush will be reelected. The Democrats' desire to be the party of atheists, homosexuals, and feminists has political consequences. It results in John Kerry being elected president of San Francisco, Cambridge, and Ann Arbor, and George W. Bush being elected president of the United States.

That is amazing and is some of the first good news about the views of the American electorate that I have heard in a long time. I hope it really holds up.

You know that was exactly what Pat Buchanan told the GOP it had to take serious and fight on in 1992, he said it was a winning issue. Instead the party joined the media in freaking out and ostracizing him over what they considered the "so-called" culture war that Buchanan had spoken of. Maybe Pat was just ahead of the times.

Of course then you look at Cali voting by a large margin (at this point) to clone and destroy embryos in a malevolent, and ridiculously wasteful, proposition and one gets depressed agaion about our moral sense.

Anybody who's been listening should know that Pat Buchanan has always been ahead of the curve.

Would have made a heck of a President.

Hey Dan,

You think I'm Immoral? Take a look in the mirror. Doesn't your God say something about loving everyone no matter there circumstance. Not believing in a higher power makes me morally corrupt? I have deep family values, respect all walks of life and cherish the lives of all my fellow americans, even those that believe in a God. And although I'm an athiest I follow, respect and honor the basic ten commandments. You create a chasm between those who you believe to be immoral and yourself with your "trashtalking". That's not a way to win people over to your side, now is it? Whose the immoral one Dan, I can tell you it's not me.

Why can't antiChristians get through their head that Chirstians are to "love the sinner" and "hate the sin." We must say that sometimes a person's activity or state is morally inferior while still loving the person. Is that really too complex an idea?

_If_ Christians _were_ right about God, then there _would be_ something ungrateful about not recognizing him. Can't even an atheist see that? And can't an atheist see that a Christian can think that and still love him as a person.

But that is besides the point: Flynn's point was that Democrats are the party of 'progressive' immoralism, and that they'll lose middle America when they do that. And what does that have to do with you being an atheist?

The point of him being an atheist is this:

The religious right is celebrating now, but there are large groups of dems, republicans and independents that are sick and tired of the self-righteous few who want to impose their definition of morality on the rest of us.

Bush won because of his fear campaign, but people will only take so much. The day will come when the smoke from 9/11 finally clears, and people see that the neocons in the bush administration and elsewhere in the political sphere want anything but a democracy and exploit the tragedy of 9/11 for their own intolerant and war-mongering agenda.

and as for the hate-the-sin-not-the-sinner, Mr. Flynn mentioned specific groups of people, not specific acts.

yes, it was a devastating defeat. not just for dems but for liberty and humanity. i'll not weep, though, because it's only four years. and who knows, maybe old man cheney's heart will burst in a few months or a year.

and hey, there's the Geico philosophy:

the anti-christ was just reelected.
the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

But i just saved $200 on my car insurance.

-woman in black

Person, did Flynn say he hated any of the groups of people he mentioned? So why are you insisting he does? Answer: projection, because you are so full of hatred for your political opponents. (Here's a paraphrase of your intense hatred: "Oh happy day, Old Man Cheney's heart has burst!")

Ultimately, any person reading your comment would have to conclude that you have _serious_ emotional problems.

As a Christian, I want to make clear that I love you, but I hate your disturbed psyche. Get a grip.

"and as for the hate-the-sin-not-the-sinner, Mr. Flynn mentioned specific groups of people, not specific acts."

specific groups of people who support immoral acts. People defined by what they support not by gender or race.

I never said I hated Cheney. But it's much like the bush administration's argument for invading iraq -- i believe the u.s. needs a regime change. Furthermore, it was written in jest. Or perhaps, in the new fascist america, that's not allowed either.

and as for my pysche, it's healthy, happy and thriving, but you're more than welcome to believe otherwise.

Might I point out that in my response, I made no personal attacks toward you or Mr. Flynn. I've noticed a lot of name-calling on this site. What a shame.

love,
person

"I'll not weep, though, because it's only four years. and who knows, maybe old man cheney's heart will burst in a few months or a year."-person

While you openly enjoy the thought of a man's heart 'bursting' because you disagree with his opinions, you yell at me for 'name-calling' for saying you are emotionally disturbed?!

I guess we just have different moral standards for what is acceptable in civil discourse.

C'est la vie!

I know I am "sick and tired of the self-righteous few who want to impose their definition of morality on the rest of us." I mean I really can't stand the self-righteous Massachusetts Supreme Court justices or the justices that legalized abortion, or Hollywood elites, etc. Their moral pretensions are sickening and one day they will be defeated.

Well I don't know where to begin. I like this site and believe that Dan Flynn is knowledgeable and fair but some of the comments he made in these posts are strange. Democrats are not a party of atheists, homosexuals, and feminists. Some people are but that is a blanket statement. That seems like a blinded attack based on emotion. I think he and other conservatives are mad because Dems aren't rooted in a Judeo-Christian belief. If the voters of America made a so called statement by prioritizing morals and blaming every societal problem on Democrats, do they really believe that democracy is mainly a inconvience and that church and state should be married? That to me is the most homosexual marriage of all which is ironic! Does anybody here including Mr. Flynn believe that Americans want church and state married together? Is that what most Americans really want? Seems like it to me. With everything going on in the world today, Bush voters seem to feel that its not enough to let adults deal with their own problems like getting off the couch and getting a job. We need Christianity to dictate our lives. Not just preaching but mixing dogma into law because America is so immoral we need to take the next step. Who does this country belong to? What do you think?

To Firebrand.

Yawn.

No one is trying to wed "church and state," that is a liberal fantasy, or I suppose, nightmare.

What "church" would be wed to the state? The Southern Baptist one? The Roman Catholic one? The Orthodox Jewish one? The Mormon one?

Your fears of religious folk are intolerant and close-minded and the questions you pose are so rhetorical they have no purchase on the reality of American politics.