Let Them Eat Moral Values!

Immediately following the election, political pundits, particularly those on the left, were scratching their heads trying to figure out why so many Americans voted for Republicans in national and local races, especially when it would be directly detrimental to them economically?

The answer they all came up with is that it all boiled down to the Republicans claiming moral values for the country.

Gay marriage, abortion, God and Country.

In Missouri, where an in-fight raged on between Democrat incumbent Governor Bob Holden and challenger Claire McCaskill in the primary, the Republicans began rubbing their hands together for the coup.

McCaskill won the Democratic primary, and although she prevailed in urban St. Louis and Kansas City during the general election, she failed to connect with rural voters, as did Democrats in most elections in many States.

Democrats failed to ride the theme of social pro-life moral values such as the question of pre-eminent war, giving assistance to the country’s most vulnerable people and raising questions regarding possibly executing innocents in our prisons.

To rural voters’ own economic detriment, they bought into the moral values line and in 100 of 107 counties, voted for Republican Matt Blunt for Governor. In addition, they voted in Republican State Senators and Representatives to back him. Blunt’s current budget proposal in Missouri slashes medical insurance for some of the state’s poorest and other benefits for some of the states most vulnerable-it’s children.

And now, the Democrats, who vowed to tell Republican voters, “I told you so,” could say it with a grin on their faces. And it would be funny, if it weren’t so sad. Children with developmental disabilities will be cut from the state’s First Steps programs and other people who depend on medical aid from the state will no longer be afforded insurance.

Blunt’s response in the media: The cuts are long overdue.

A rural Southwest Missouri couple was recently profiled in The Kansas City Star as being two people who would loose their Medicaid benefits under Matt Blunt’s proposed budget. They voted for him because of his stance on gun control and gay marriage. Now the couple is having second thoughts about voting Republican.

And a Democrat voter’s response: “Maybe the Republicans supposed moral values will save them. God knows compassionate conservatism won’t.”