So in analyzing the results of the election, there’s a lot of discussion surrounding the key role of an issue that people are choosing to call, for whatever reason, “moral values.”  If you pay just the tiniest bit of attention, it becomes clear in about ten seconds that this term is actually code for a number of issues, not the least of which are gay marriage and abortion.  Do not confuse this with actual moral values.  Remember, we’re talking in code here.  Now, I know that there are a lot of people out there that have not yet figured out that both women and gay people are, well, people, and that they have as much right to live free and pursue happiness as anyone else.  But I guess I just thought that there were more people out there who had already figured these things out.  I didn’t realize just how far the ignorance, fear, and even hatred spread.  Because that’s what it is.  Dress it up with the Bible all you like, but it comes down to those things. 

Now here’s what really scares me.  One of New York state’s democratic senators who was one of the Dems to actually make it back into office (thank you New York!) was on the Daily Show last night.  And it was clear that he was extraordinarily baffled by the election.  And the subject of moral values (remember, code) came up, and he conceded (hateful word!) that these issuse had strongly influenced the election’s outcome.  He went on to say that the Democrats were going to have to do a lot of thinking on this topic in order to figure out what to do next.  That frightens me because politicians, no matter what party they are from, want to win elections.  And parties want their people in power.  I have this horrid nagging feeling that Democrats, at least the ones in the red states, may lean even further to the right in the name of luring voters to their side when in fact, they need to be fighting even harder than ever to jog people’s memories so they will remember what moral values really are.  Things like peace, freedom, equality, charity, tolerance, these things should echo forth from the lips of all of us who believe in them, and most definitely from leaders, whether it’s all the rage or not.  This is absolutely not an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” proposition, because that way lies fascism and tyranny.