Women, the Values Debate, and a New Liberal Politics

November 2004: The election is over. The red states have prevailed. And a "values debate" has begun, as has a debate about the debate. Were values really a crucial factor in the Bush majority? And if so, what was at the heart of the red and blue divide? Whose values were most powerfully in play-evangelical Christians? conservative Christians? conservatives more generally? Was the dividing line a matter of moral values, questions of sexual morality, or more general, fuzzy cultural values? Or did the election actually turn on very specific social issues such as gay marriage and abortion?