Family Values

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2) The subject on another level is profoundly relevant. It addresses cultural divides in American life that must be sorted out if the nation is to proceed coherently. Although raised by opportunists seeking votes, the issue of family values goes to the soul of what kind of country Americans want and what kind of lives they live. The issue in this campaign represents more than mere partisan struggle. It is part of the nation's effort to assimilate -- in the deepest sense, to domesticate, to understand, to control -- changes in American society over the past two generations: to deal with the consequences of sexual revolution, of women's liberation, of huge multicultural immigration from non-European sources, with the devastation caused by the drug trade, with the loss of America's long absolute postwar pre-eminence, with the fragmentation of the family. It is even a reflection of the baby boom generation's coming of age, having families and changing their moral perspective from individual self-gratification to a somewhat sobered emphasis on family.

In other words, it is not enough to dismiss the family-values issue as a political ploy in a tough Republican year.

A question is whether George Bush, or Dan Quayle, or Pat Buchanan, or any politician or government, can have much to do with improving a society's values -- family or otherwise. Surely the values, if worth anything, must be more deeply embedded in the culture than the slogans of transient politicians. A Memphis construction company owner named J.D. Walker Jr. watched the Republican Convention last week and said in some disgust: "We want President Bush to know the American citizenry is not dumb. Don't keep telling us things will get better if we let you dictate how to run our personal lives. In my list of important things about this campaign, family values is fourth. Just ahead of that at No. 3 is counting all the sand on all the beaches in the world. Get the idea?"

A second question is why family values would be any different or any better under a Bush Administration than under a Clinton Administration. And third, if government or politics can make American family values better, why have not the Republicans under nearly 12 years of Ronald Reagan and George Bush improved the moral tone of the country?

The family-values issue could conceivably become awkward for the Republicans this year: it invites questions about their responsibility and stewardship, and tempts a backlash. But do Americans accept the idea that Republican values are superior to those of Democrats? Perhaps. A TIME-CNN poll last week found that only 3% of voters consider family values to be the major issue in the campaign. More than one-third said the economy was the major issue, and 19% said unemployment. Only 1% believe abortion should be the main issue.

All this does not necessarily mean the Republicans are riding a weak horse. The fundamentalist family agenda has energy, even if the economy is the voters' first concern. Family-values questions play. In the poll, 71% agree that "there is something morally wrong with the country at this time." Almost as many agree with the idea that "television and other media . . . reflect a permissive and immoral set of values, which are bad for the country."