State of Alabama secondary Archives: on Welfare & Poverty


Al Franken: The economy--and its effect on poverty--are moral issues

I know. You think Bush won on "moral values." That myth came from one terribly designed exit poll, in which 22% of respondents looked at a list of "issues" and chose "moral values" as the most important one. And 80% of these people voted for Bush. For the next month, we were subjected to Republican talking heads crowing about how Democrats were "out of touch" on the "moral values issue."

There were any number of problems with the "moral values issue" issue. For starters: To me and apparently to some other people, the economy is a moral issue. During the 1st 3 years of Bush's presidency, 4.3 million Americans--including a million-plus children--fell into poverty. I, for one, don't blame the kids. Yet of the 20% of the voters in this exit poll who said "economy/jobs" was the most important issue, 0% were considered "moral values" voters. And 80% of them voted for Kerry.

Ditto for Iraq, health care, and education.

Source: The Truth (with jokes), by Al Franken, p. 31-32 Oct 25, 2005

  • The above quotations are from State of Alabama Politicians: secondary Archives.
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Page last updated: Mar 28, 2014