EDITORIAL – America torn on social agenda

American voters sent a powerful message to the religious right this Tuesday by defending… American voters sent a powerful message to the religious right this Tuesday by defending abortion rights, supporting stem cell research and rejecting a gay marriage ban.

The defeated measures were included on the ballots of several states as referendums.

Voters in Oregon and California defended abortion rights, where measures were proposed that would have required parents to be notified before a girl under 18 could get an abortion. Abortion rights were also defended in South Dakota, where an initiative, if passed, would have banned all abortions with the exception of saving a pregnant woman’s life, according to the Associated Press.

In Missouri, voters chose to endorse a stem cell research measure that was firmly opposed by many pro-life activists and evangelical leaders.

And in Arizona, for the first time ever, a measure that would ban same-sex marriages was defeated, a huge victory for gay rights activists.

While it can be argued that some of the rejections came as backlash from disapproval of President Bush and his policy in Iraq, these measures were ballot initiatives, so voters could potentially reject Republicans while still supporting the social issues that are so dear to the Republican Party-but they didn’t.

So what does the wide-scale rejection of these religious-right-led proposals mean?

Perhaps voters were disillusioned with a party that championed one ideal, but acted on another- and were left not knowing what to believe.

Flashback to the 2004 election: Republicans campaigned heavily on the concept of “family values” and conservative social policies, which ultimately were the deciding factor in the election. Republicans were the “defenders of life,” the moral benchmark for the American public, the safe-keepers of all that was ethical and right in this cruel, corrupt world. Fast forward to 2006: Republicans are plagued by sex scandals, money swindling and lies, and America realizes that conservatives can be bad people, too.

Politics aside, do these rejections of religious-right-led movements really signal a changing American ideology?

Not completely.

Many of the initiatives were rejected by a very close vote, a signal that Americans are still heavily divided on social issues. Furthermore, some of the rejections stemmed partly from the scopes of the measures. South Dakota was proposing to ban almost all abortions, and Arizona was proposing to not only ban gay marriages, but to also prevent government entities from recognizing civil unions. Also, along with the defeats, there were some victories for the religious right. Despite the groundbreaking rejection of a gay marriage ban in Arizona, seven other states passed gay marriage bans, joining the 20 other states that have passed similar bans in previous elections.

If anything, the decisions made by voters this Tuesday signal to the religious right that Americans are deeply divided on social issues, and that one string of victories or defeats is not a true indicator of a nation’s values.