Dominance of Moral Values in Election Questioned

The validity of the major Election Day poll that cited “moral values” as the issue that swayed voters more than any other has come into question, with analysts criticizing the inclusion of moral values, a vague characteristic, alongside more specific issues.

Polls have become increasingly more political in recent years, a trend that became of topic of much debate during this year’s campaign, with supporters of both Kerry’s and Bush’s campaign crying foul at various polls that were not favorable towards their own candidate.

An exit poll conducted by Edison/Mitofsky for the National Election Pool (NAP), a consortium of ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News, interviewed voters after they had cast their votes at their polling places.

Among other questions on a questionnaire that Edison/Mitofsky presented voters with was: Which ONE issue mattered most in deciding how you voted for president?

The multiple choice question listed seven issues as possible answers: taxes, education, Iraq, terrorism, economy/jobs, moral values, and health care.

Gary Langer, director of polling for ABC News, one of the sponsors of the poll, told the New York Times that the problem with the “moral values” question is that it is not a specific issue. "Health care is an issue, terrorism is an issue; moral values is much more of a personal characteristic," he said.

CBS News and CNN have also distanced themselves from the question, writing articles calling the inclusion of "moral values" into question, while NBC has defended the inclusion, and Fox has cited the importance of “moral values” frequently during the post-election coverage.

Fox News is widely regarded as favoring the conservative agenda.

How a plural phrase can be considered a singular issue is just part of the post-election debate regarding the inclusion of “moral values” as a possible answer in a multiple choice question that sought to identify the most important issue in the 2004 presidential election.

There’s also the matter of what the phrase means: Whose moral values? What is the standard of morality?

Right wing conservatives were quick to claim the "moral values" phrase, suggesting that the public had clearly sided with their efforts and calling on Democrats to take note.

It is generally presumed that “moral values” includes a litany of issues such as abortion rights, gay rights, stem-cell research, school prayer, and other issues believed to be associated favorably with Bush’s candidacy – but such a presumption arguably should not be allowed to enter the debate.

Examination of the actual poll questions and results show that Bush has far less than a mandate to pursue legislation seeking to enforce “morale values”, even from his own voters.

While the majority of Bush supporters were against abortion in all cases, 25 percent of the president’s supporters were in favor of abortion rights in most cases, with an additional 10 percent claiming they were in favor of abortion rights in all cases.

That means over a third of Bush’s supporters are in favor of legal abortions to some extent – surely a shock the far-right wing Christian movement.

While the majority, 51 percent, of Bush supporters are against legal rights being granted gay couples under any circumstances, 34 percent of those who said they voted for Bush believed gay and lesbian couples should be given legal rights through civil unions, but not marriage. Ten percent of Bush’s supporters believed gay couples should be given marriage rights.

Bush himself has indicated that he would support civil unions, though he has argued for a constitutional amendment seeking to ban gay marriages – an unlikely event given the lengthy ratification process required for a constitutional amendment.

Interestingly enough, the candidate whose support base most often selected “moral values” as their single most important issue wasn’t George W. Bush – it was Ralph Nader; 57 percent of his supporters cited moral values as their top concern, compared to 35 percent of Bush supporters and eight percent of Kerry’s.