Conservatives aren't winning because more Americans believe in their worldview. Its because their worldview is based in right versus wrong. There's no reason the Left can't- and shouldn't- follow the same approach.
In the days and weeks following the presidential election of 2004, the two conglomerates of issues that were found to have decided the election were security and "values." Security was a given, with the war in Iraq, lingering issues of September 11, and the war on terrorism. However, a surprisingly equal- and maybe even more decisive- set of issues was this thing called "values."
But what does "values" really mean?
Minutes after the election was decided, and exit polls digested, "values" came to be translated as the moral- and even religious- issues of the red states against the secular values of the blue states.
The Right truly believed that "the truth marched on"- that the election somehow proved a supremacy of religion-based morality, and specifically the Southern and rural Christian brands of religious morality.
The pundits on the Left scrambled to explain away the loss on these grounds: Karl Rove merely did a better job of getting out the Christian Right vote, fear of Osama bin Laden made people afraid of a major change in administration, and so on and so forth.
- THE RIGHT AND WHAT'S RIGHT -
The concept that everyone on both sides is missing is that the election was not won or lost on America's preference for how Conservatives define right and wrong. It was won because they define right and wrong. Or, another way of saying it: Democrats did not- and will not- gain the political traction that Republicans have as long as they refuse to succinctly define right and wrong.
Now, this is not to say Democrats have no platform at all- of course they do. As well, this has nothing to do with flip-flopping on issues or other cheap (and, really, only barely effective) campaign tactics. Republicans have issues and Democrats have issues. I think most people understand that there are major differences in the parties, and neither is more wishy-washy than the other in merely having issues. The real difference between the two parties over the past few years- at least in how the American people perceive them- has been each side's take on issues has been filtered to the American people.
On the front of cultural issues, the Republican endgame runs through (fairly) absolute rights and wrongs. Disregarding the freshening-up of language and political speeches, lets face it: the core of the Republican policy makers believe things like homosexuality, abortion, welfare, public displays of sexuality, and the like are wrong. The undertone in everything they say proves this. When push comes to shove (e.g. legislation has to be passed), this is proven.
And granted, these are the somewhat extreme, core beliefs of the Right. When these beliefs turn into action, they do present themselves in a little easier-to-digest manner for the majority of America: unplanned pregnancy is wrong, the traditional American family structure is right, the free market is right, and so on.
And this is why the Right wins: the (perceived) problems and fears of the bulk of normal Americans boiled down to simple rights and wrongs.
