The Enemy Within

The NY Times had an article out Monday discussing how, energized by electoral victories last month, conservative Christian advocates across the country are pushing ahead state and local initiatives on issues such as same-sex marriage, the teaching of evolution in public schools, and abortion. Recent victories have included the many state gay marriage bans, a Pennsylvania school district wiping out the teaching of evolution in science curriculums and replacing it with the "theory of intelligent design," and the approval of textbooks in Texas that do not mention contraceptives at all when discussing sex.

Because the Christian Right, helped along by an all-to-willing conservative media apparatus, projects an image of victimization in national politics, people often don't see or don't hear about the drastic conservative policy changes that are happening in state and local governments across the country. They don't see how much influence this right-wing evangelical groups are having. In many places, abortions, even early term ones, are so hard to require that the fact that they are legal becomes irrelevant. This is because of the chip-away policy these groups have lobbied politicans on for decades, and now their influence has come to its apex.

Now some will no doubt argue that this reflects a change in Americans' attititude towards these issues, especially since Bush was re-elected. But whatever the talk of how "moral values" decided the election, the truth is too small a plurality cited that as their reason for voting for Bush to say that was the deciding factor. While "value voter" religious conservatives probably helped Bush carry close states like Ohio, most who voted for him did so because they thought he was the best choice for the "war on terror," casting economic and other concerns, even on social policy, aside.

But beyond these facts, there is no evidence to support the assertion Americans are more conservative on social issues. Two recent polls found around 60% of Americans did not want to see Bush appoint a conservative justice to the USSC that would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and in general support abortion rights. While a majority or plurality of Americans certainly don't support gay marriages, a majority do support some legal recognition of gay couples, whether it is through civil unions or marriage and are against a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. Most people, including 90% of Texans, believe contraceptive use should be taught alongside abstinence in sex education. The list goes on.

The truth is, both the national government and state and other local governments are becoming vastly more conservative on the social issues than the American people, by and large, actually are. People simply do not realize, or yet take seriously, the efforts and the effects of this social conservative minority.

And much of the problem has been my own side has been a sleep at the wheel. While Democrats and others on the left have been fighting these battles on the national level, we too have left these things slip by us on the state level. We must not allow ourselves to focus on the 2008 presidential race so much as to act as if that is the only prize that matters. Neither is winning Senate and House seats enough. The right has never thought that way, and we shouldn't either. In fact, they began their movement largely on the state level. We clearly must turn our attention also to state races of all kinds, and fight conservative ballot initiatives and put forth our own progressive ones.

As I pointed out, for many issues, such as abortion and the seperation of church and state, it's the laws in the states that matter most in practice. It is simply not enough to wage battles on the national level to keep progressive policies alive. It's way past time people woke up to these facts, and clearly, high time to start doing something about it.

UPDATE: In hopeful news, Democrats did well in statewide elections this year.