The Morally Obtuse "Values Voter"

If I weren't under tremendous pressure to meet a book deadline over the next couple of weeks I'd write a whole piece on the "values voter" debate the other night. Ron Paul did an excellent job, and refused to pander to the various interest groups demanding their federal goodies. (You'd think they'd at least respect him for refusing to pander.)

According to what "values," exactly, are we to devote all our energies to getting pornography out of hotel rooms, but be utterly unmoved -- and I mean unmoved -- by the completely avoidable deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq? Why is this not a moral issue, and why is the just-war tradition to be dismissed with such sneering contempt? And pardon my bluntness, but what kind of blockhead thinks you have to be a "liberal" to be outraged at this? What kind of religion do these people believe in? (Their definition of a just war seems to be a war waged by the U.S. government.)

As for Islam, the point is that U.S. policies do motivate people to join up with the radicals. Assuming arguendo that the radicals themselves would wish to wage jihad no matter what, the rank and file in these groups are --gasp -- human beings who respond to U.S. government policies that hurt them. How can you expect to play empire and not suffer the consequences?