Maybe, but all that this means is that the war on terrorism has not fundamentally altered, or made irrelevant, the cultural, moral and religious divisions that have polarised America for so long.A church-going landIt is also important to judge the religious-moral vote against the background of American religiosity in general.
Americans may be holding tenaciously to a strict view of personal morality, but they say that they do not want to impose their views on others (abortion seems to be the big exception).The fact that there was a substantial religious-moral vote is not by itself evidence of a political breakthrough by religious conservatives.
"Given the appalling revelations surrounding Planned Parenthood, we cannot in good moral conscience vote to send taxpayer money to this organization while still fulfilling our duty to represent our constituents," the members said in a statement.
In Maine and California, for example, the Christian Right launched vigorous - and successful -- campaigns to amend their state constitutions to outlaw same-sex marriage, and voters in Iowa, spurred on by the Moral Majority, voted out of office three of the state supreme court justices who had voted to recognize a state constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
Asked if Congress had a moral responsibility to vote on a new authorization, Ryan made it clear that he'd prefer to have a vote, but doesn't think it's necessary.
[of] the moral prohibition to vote in favor of a candidate who has supported the abortion project," read one part of the campaign, published in rightwing newspaper El Mercurio.
Declaring that such citizens have lost the moral authority to vote just because they are behind bars is an arbitrary decision, not a principle carved on the granite of the common law.
The Daily Mail's full-page editorial, "If our MPs STILL have any doubts, they've a moral duty to vote no", is unequivocal in its opposition to a punitive strike against Bashar al-Assad.
Some people insist, of course, that we have a moral duty to vote, although it is extremely difficult to ground that duty in any more basic and compelling set of principles.
You are under no moral obligation to vote for the lesser of two evils.
