Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

WHO REALLY IS THE MORAL MAJORITY?

During the past 30+ years, America has been fed a meme which goes something like this: There is a Moral Majority in this country that stands for God, Country, Family Values, and [insert whatever else you choose here]. We have had, over the years, representatives of this self-identified "Moral Majority" tell us that they represent the true values that embody what America is all about. We've heard variations on this sermonizing from people like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, et.al., as well as politicians from the GOP--who purport to be the keepers of America's values.

We've also, for many years, listened to the trashing of certain regions of this country as liberal anti-God, anti-American, anti-Family Values, and anti-[insert whatever else you choose here]. These regions have traditionally been identified as the elite east and left coasts and some Great Lakes states, where the Family Values crowd claims all sorts of nefarious, anti-family behaviors flourish.

Now comes reality and the dismantling of all that hogwash, all that self-important, chest-thumping, holier-than-thou, self-righteousness. And that reality comes in the form of facts, data that destroy the false perception that somehow the Bible Belt and other parts of the Family Values country otherwise identified as "flyover country" are the keepers of what America is all about.

We all know that personal morality and individual failures on that issue cross party lines. No political party is immune from individuals who are less--much, much less--than perfect. Of course, one would not have noticed this during the Clinton years. The moral posturing, recriminations, rancor and incessant hammering away at Mr. Clinton's personal failings--especially by some men who were engaging in those very same behaviors--were monumentally hypocritical. Governor Sanford of South Carolina was among those Congressmen who denigrated and piously criticized Mr. Clinton's moral failings.

"Never spit in the wind; it'll come back and hit you in the face." --Nonna

The GOP has lost all claims to be the party of superior moral values. Their members have feet of clay just like every other human being, and their religious practices, apparently, do not protect them from temptations.

The 2009 Statistical Abstract U.S. Census Bureau report also destroys the idea that the Bible Belt states are morally superior to the more liberal coastal and Great Lake states. Here are the data:

The 10 states with the highest divorce rates:

Nevada
Arkansas
Wyoming
Oklahoma
Idaho
Kentucky
Alabama
Mississippi
West Virginia
Delaware

The 10 states with the lowest divorce rates:

New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
North Dakota
Maine
Minnesota
Connecticut
Wisconsin
Rhode Island
New York

If you want to keep your marriage together, your chances are better if you live in New England rather than the Bible Belt--yes, New England, where 5 out of the 6 states allow same-sex marriage.

The 10 states with highest teenage birth rates:

Mississippi
Texas
Arizona
Arkansas
New Mexico
Georgia
Louisiana
Nevada
Alabama
Oklahoma

The 10 states with the lowest teenage birth rates:

New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
North Dakota
Maine
Minnesota
Connecticut
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania

The 10 states with the highest subscription to online pornography sites:

Utah
Alaska
Mississippi
Hawaii
Oklahoma
Arkansas
North Dakota
Louisiana
Florida
West Virginia

The 10 states with the lowest subscription to online pornography sites:

Montana
Idaho
Tennessee
Ohio
Oregon
New Jersey
Delaware
Connecticut
Wyoming
Michigan

Source

The Moral Majority and Family Values crowd need to be quiet and think about the abuse they have heaped on the East Coast Liberals. Take a look at those stats and understand that Family Values are practiced most sincerely in the liberal Northeast, whereas The Bible Belt needs to engage in some self-reflection before it claims moral superiority over any other region in America.

"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

18 comments:

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

There immoral majority clowns love to make up "facts" that fit their deluded beliefs.

And who is this guy from San Antonio Tx. that visits your site even more than I do Shaw?

TAO said...

Truth, if you would have checked you would have realized that the visitor from Texas came from your blog to Shaw's blog....

Lynne said...

I come here often (from the moral Northest) because Shaw's blog rocks.

Always interesting, always factual, always fair. Keep up the good work.

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

TAO: I never claimed to have vast computer skills. I figure the less I mess with stat counters and stuff, the less chance I have of screwing things up.


Shaw does indeed ROCK.

Shaw Kenawe said...

TRUTH 101,

The person from San Antonio who stalks my blog site to steal my posts and comments is, well...I don't wish to waste my valuable time talking about it. Look at how much time it spends trolling my site. LOL!

Let's just say that the less said about it, the better.

How are you, my bro? You're looking good and fine.

TAO's got his blog up again so we can read his take on the state of the union.

Lynne, you've been a stranger to these parts. Welcome.

TAO said...

Tao has decided that the state of the union sucks...

Obama is a conservative and what passes for conservatism on the internet is actually a bunch of veterans against democracy...

I think Jennifer got me fired up by calling me a liberal....

Its going to be radical from now on!

Gordon Scott said...

Ah. This is the same Charles Blow who lives and works in New York City and professes to know what people are really like out here in flyover country? The same Charles Blow who used a gay slur to describe Barack Obama?

Quite the source, eh?

Oh, and please source the remark that the GOP claims to be the party of higher moral values.

Pamela Zydel said...

I don't like when people preach. So, my saying is, clean your own closet before you clean mine. Besides, mine is amost 100 sq ft, so it's kinda big.

Lynne said...

I've been here all along, Shaw, just keeping quiet after what the nutbags did to me (leaving idiotic comments in my name on each other's blogs to make me look like an *sshole). Also, in my last comment: northeast, not northest-duh).

I assume the stalker from San Antonio is "he who shall not be named"?

Shaw Kenawe said...

Gordon,

I cited the US Census Bureau as the source of the stats, and Mr. Blow included those stats in his column.

It's not Mr. Blow who professes to know where the real America is, according to US Census Bureau statistics, it is reality that determines that.

If Mr. Blow used a gay slur against Mr. Obama then he should be ashamed of himself.



There are plenty of good, honorable people in all parts of this country. The point of my post was to illustrate that the accepted wisdom that the liberal northeast is filled with chardonnay sipping and brie eating elitists is just not true.

Turns out that the Northeast is a region of this country that actually practices and lives the so-called "real" American values--and not the Bible Belt.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Lynn,

You are correct.

Gordon Scott said...

Oh hell, Shaw, we know that the northeast isn't filled with brie-sipping chardonnay-eating elitists.

But they are the ones who run the joint.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Pamela,

Everyone's closet could use a a good cleaning on a regular basis. No matter how many I clean mine, I'm always finding an old bone or two left over from a skeleton I threw out years before.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Gordon,

I'm so elitist that I sip my brie only from crackers with two left sides. :)

Arthurstone said...

Speaking of elitism.

I have spent a bit of time lately visiting with my good friends on the proverbial 'other side of the aisle'.

Jaded Haven. The Dipso Chronicles. American Thinker (my favorite for untruth in advertising). American Digest. These are the sites I mainly have visited.

Use of the words 'moron' and 'idiot' is appreciably higher by an as yet uncalculated factor than one sees on blogs from the left.

Interesting.

dmarks said...

Arthur: Ages ago, I hung out at townhall.com. There were a bunch of morons there. I remember one guy who was half-white, half-East Asian being called an abomination because he was the result of race-mixing.

Many people defended Bo Gritz (rhymes with sh*ts) and racially-pure enclaves in the Northwest. Separate but equal and all that.

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

Personally I wish that we'd stop the "family values" "morality" b.s. altogether. Legalize gay marriage and brushoff affairs by politicians as they do in Europe and get down to passing health care reform and other vastly more important issues.

This goes hand in hand with getting religion the F__K out of politics. Do Christian Republicans REALLY want a theocracy? They have NEVER worked!!! Learn your history people!!!

This all said, I agree with you Shaw in pointing out their decades of hypocrisy on "moral issues." We'd leave it alone if they didn't live in glass houses and lob stones at the neighbor's windows. So I posted on this too in part to hurl a giant boulder through the glass house of the Republican party.

Enough with the "Holier than thou" mantra from the Republicans. Just because you are Christian doesn't make you automatically perfect. You are still just as human as the rest of us.

I am so damn sick of the sexual puritanism that refuses to fully die off in this country. Gay marriage will be the law of the land in the near future. You can count on the young people for that. So enough with the social values arguments thrown into politics.

By the way, I bet I know why Utah is the top in porn. They are home to the Mormons who are some of the most strict Christians in the world. I know, I was one for 20+ years and the one thing they are obsessed with is sex. Sex is bad, sex is evil is their mantra.

Well it doesn't take a biology professor to know that sexuality WILL find a way to be expressed and indulged upon. It's like trying to keep someone from breathing. So Mormons sneak around to get their sexuality fulfilled, which means porn and usually a guilt complex spiral is developed.

It teaches you to hate your body and feel guilty when you pleasure it. It's messed up and abusive. Utah also has a high rate of drug use because like with sex they repress the use of alcohol. So they turn to drugs which are much easier to get than alcohol when you live in Utah.

Arthurstone said...

It's always sex that winds people up. Particularly those on the right.

Meanwhile guys like Elliot Abrams, Robert McFarlane, G. Gordon Liddy, the execrable Oliver North etc. etc. involve themselves in murderous, criminal activities then find their careers blossom instead of being marched off to prison.

Adultery is the least of it.