The Partisan Gap in American Morality

Gallup reports that Republican partisans are more critical of the country's moral climate than are Democrats and independents:

Republicans have grown more critical of the state of moral values in the United States, with the percentage rating present moral conditions "poor" rising from 36% in 2006 to 51% in 2007, and remaining at that level today. No comparable change is seen among independents or Democrats.

As a result, Republicans are now significantly more negative about moral values than independents or Democrats, marking a change from the recent past.

These findings come from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, updated May 8-11, 2008.

The overall results to the question about the state of moral values show that, as has been the case consistently throughout the decade, few Americans give the country's moral climate high marks. Only 15% consider moral values to be "excellent" or "good" while 41% call them "only fair" and 44% consider them to be "poor."

A follow-up question asks Americans whether moral values are getting better or getting worse, and yields an equally negative answer. Only 11% of Americans perceive that values are improving, while 81% say things are getting worse....

Bottom Line

Americans are reliably negative when it comes to rating moral values in the country. Since 2002, a majority of Americans have consistently said the state of moral values is less than good and getting worse.

Apart from this general pattern, Republicans' disaffection with the nation's moral climate (but not Democrats' or independents') has been elevated over the past two years. A number of "values" issues have been in the news in recent years, including gay marriage, pop-star misbehavior, and reports of high-profile elected officials involved in sex-related scandals, but it is unclear that any of these are responsible for the pattern in the data.

Whatever the cause, this may signal that Republicans will be particularly anxious to elect a new president this November who will help to uphold or restore the values they now find lacking in the country.

I would hazard that Republicans - in general - simply care more about maintaining traditional moral standards.

Indeed, Gallup's findings aren't surprising at all, especially as the increase in GOP moral concern coincides with an election campaign marked on the Democratic side by the defense of attacks on this country in statement's like "GOD DAMN AMERICA," or in Daily Kos posts proclaiming:

Do I think that 9/11 was the "chickens coming home to roost?" Yeah, I pretty much do.

Many - I repeat - many on the left think we deserve death and destruction at hands of Middle Eastern terrorists, perhaps because of the left's ideology that under the Bush administration the conservative movement's been transformed into "pseudo-fascism."

There's a partisan "morals gap" in America today, and I don't think this is something left should proud of.

Image Credit: Gallup Poll