What are "American values."

[doppelganger]

We hear a lot about "values voters" but the things they talk about sound
foreign to any concept of values that I am familiar with as an American. These "conservative" values are things like opposing abortion, opposing civil rights for racial minorities and homosexuals, flag burning amendments, interference with private sexual behavior, interference with the state law procedures for guardianships, school prayer, etc.

What would you consider the core American values? What would a real American "values voter" care about?

 

[Sunstone]

Participation in the democratic process would seem to me to be a traditional American value, albeit one that might be on the wane.

I've always heard that Americans have a comparably high regard for fairness and fair play.

Of course, there is also the notion of equality of opportunity.

But those three things certainly don't exhaust the list of American values.

 

[Willamena]

What would you consider the core American values? What would a real American "values voter" care about?

I hope this thread isn't American only as it is Liberal only.

I think the core values that originally brought together frontiermen north and south of the 49th are what should still bring them together: designing a world that all could live in fairly; holding the individual on a par with the groups they are a member of; and the excitment of new discovery. And great hair-dos.

 

[jamaesi]

Freedom, Equality, Opportunity.
The ability to participated in our government process and the right to address and change and fix inequalities.

Participation in the democratic process would seem to me to be a traditional American value, albeit one that might be on the wane.

A little off-topic, and not exactly about American politics, but the word idiot originally meant someone who didn't participate in their government and stayed ignorant of it. I thought that was sort of interesting when I read about it in my linguistic book.

 

[CDRaider]

I think American values are something that have almost become a facade that we hide behind. The divorce rate is 50% and the extramarital rate is 25% for men and 17% for women (refernce Devience by Dr. Alex Thio).

I think one of the biggest values that we stress in this country is family family family but we dont' live by it. I think that every politician runs on the family values platform but the fact of the matter is the 'normal' family is a minority now.

So to answer the question, I think family is a huge American value along with independence, opportunity, equality, education (A HUGE ONE as well), and the right for action.

Now, do I belive we the majority ACTUALLY value these? Yes, does the majority ACTUALLY live the life? NO

 

[CDRaider]

Consume as if your life depends on it.

:biglaugh: Ok ok, that too.

 

[lilithu]

I hope this thread isn't American only as it is Liberal only.

Unfortunately, I do think that a lot of the discussions in these DIP (discuss individual political affiliations?) forums will be centered on the U.S. Partly because Americans are particularly egocentric and partly because people talk about what they know about, and most RFers are in the U.S.. In fact, when at first no one responded to my forum request I thought it might have been a polite way of saying 'no.' Because there are potential problems with making forums for political affiliations, national-centricity being one of them.

If you have suggestions on how to make it more fair Willamena, please share. I do not wish to make anyone feel marginalized. Do the categories liberal, conservative, and libertarian make sense on an international level? Would other categories be better/more fair?

But regardless, there will be threads that are more relevant to one nationality than to others, just because that's the nature of politics. I think the fairest thing to do in that respect is to have people from different countries make threads to talk about issues in their own countries. That was basically what we were doing before we made these new forums anyway.

I think the core values that originally brought together frontiermen north and south of the 49th are what should still bring them together: designing a world that all could live in fairly; holding the individual on a par with the groups they are a member of; and the excitment of new discovery. And great hair-dos.

Sounds good to me.

 

[Djamila]

Individualism seems to be the strongest one that stands out in my mind, largely because I disagree with it.

In terms of ones I agree with - liberal ideals are pretty much the same everywhere.

 

[lizskid]

Many of the things mentioned by you all are values I would like to think would be American values, and may have been at one time: Education, Opportunity, Freedom, Equality. However, a lot of those have gone by the wayside of not caring, not looking beyond oneself and wanting to feel "better" than others in some way. It is unfortunate, but I feel as if I have seen the highest point in American society come and go in my lifetime.

 

[Pardus]

Anyone know much about lavey satanism? :yes: