I've been thinking a lot lately about moral politics. After the 2004 election, there was tons of talk about "moral values voters". It was said that the right was able to talk about their politics in moral terms, and were able to capture a large segment of the population that connected with that talk. There was lots of rustling that the left should frame their discussions in moral terms.
I've been wondering about the consequence of focusing on moral politics, though. If you say you believe that providing health care for all people is a moral imperative, you leave unsaid the assumption that to take the opposite view is immoral, and are more likely to take the next step of writing off their opinion as wrong. Really, I think all people would say that the moral thing to do is to take care of the sick. It is then the job of the politicians to find the most suitable way to do so.
Just some thoughts running through my head at this political time.
By the way, wasn't Kathleen Sebelius fantastic in her response to the SOTU? It's nice to be able to be proud of a Kansas politician.
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