Opinion: Right-Wing Co-Opts 'Values' -- But What Values?

(Sept. 21) -- Conservatives appropriate certain words and then toss them around like some kind of alphabet soup. How many times do we hear Sarah Palin say "freedom" "liberty" "Constitution" and "troops" with very few other words in a fragmented sentence? As I'm observing the "Values Voter Summit" in D.C., I'm watching another attempt of the right to own a word that is not their province.

Karoli at Crooks and Liars drove this home for me as I watched the video of Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, who revved up the crowd by vowing to "overturn Obamacare lock, stock and barrel." The crowd went wild. Pence won the straw poll for president among these "values"-lovers.

And how's this for "values": Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee opposes insurance for those with pre-existing conditions. Add to these embarrassing positions, GOP Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller's opposition to giving a helping hand to the unemployed, and his opposition to Medicare and Social Security; Newt Gingrich referring to the Health and Human Services Secretary as an advocate of tyranny for wanting to keep an eye on insurance companies' rates, and Gingrich's affirmation of Dinesh D'Sousa's theory that President Barack Obama is channeling his "philandering, inebriated African socialist" late father by imposing a Kenyan, "anti-colonial world view" on the United States.

How many of these "values" voters are the ones going to rallies to oppose the right of Muslims to have religious freedom in America by building houses of worship where they choose?

How many of them have or promote fear of immigrants, even though they or their parents came from somewhere else?

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How many "values" voters advocate for a New York GOP gubernatorial candidate who sends out racist, sexist e-mails, and brags about it?

How many "values" voters support a candidate who believes Obama's liberalism makes him "anti-American," lacks candor about her past, and yet would tell the "truth" to a Nazi hunting a Jew?

How many "values" voters support a party that wants to make it illegal to be gay?

Let conservatives toss around words like "freedom" "liberty" and "Constitution." They can shout them at rallies, on cable shows, and on rooftops. But it will be the progressives who fight for, legislate, and institute the policies that make these concepts real. That's values.