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INSIDE D.C.

Family Values: From Bogeyman to Bandwagon
 by Gary L, Bauer

Today's liberals, from the White House on down, seem to think
that the split between perception and reality in the average
American mind is now total. Nothing else can explain why people
who have done little for family values in Washington, or who have
even opposed them, have recently been scrambling to portray
themselves as social and cultural conservatives.

I'll admit it's a refreshing change in the cultural climate. Just
two years ago, the media were explaining the 1992 election as a
definitive rejection of the back-to-basics, family-values
movement of the '80s, and the coming to power of a new generation
whose worldview owed more to Woodstock and My Lai than to Main
Street and Normandy. But the party line is changing: folks who a
few months ago would scarcely have admitted that Christian
conservatives are human are now expressing solidarity with them.
And an administration that has promoted abortion, homosexuals in
the military, a government takeover of health care, relaxation of
child porn law, condoms in schools, and turn-'em-loose judges,
now tells us that what the nation needs most is family values.

Tennessee Sen. Jim Sasser (D) campaigned for re-election as an
advocate of school prayer. Sources on Capitol Hill cannot recall
Sasser ever lifting a finger on that issue during his 18 years in
the Senate, yet he wanted to convince Tennesseans that his re-
election would mean instant "Our Fathers" in every kindergarten.
Then there was Ted Kennedy taking a "tough on crime" stance. If
Ted is tough on crime, so is Barney Fyfe.

But the most astounding example must be Hillary Clinton. Having
kept a low profile since the rout of her health care plan, she is
now resurfacing in her Sunday best. Newsweek, which has done this
kind of thing before, was the chosen vehicle for this
reincarnation. "Hillary Rodham Clinton," it announced, "is as
pious as she is political."

In the interview, Mrs. Clinton expresses sympathy for a range of
conservative views, while leaving herself plenty of wiggle room.
Abortion? She says it's "wrong," but adds, "I don't think it
should be criminalized." No, she certainly doesn't. As recently
as two months ago, she was pushing to include it in a taxpayer-
funded health plan.

Condom distribution in schools? "I would very much prefer that
every child be given appropriate guidance and discipline so that
that was never an issue." Too bad that's just not possible in
some places where "family and religion have failed to do their
jobs." That government is undermining the work of family and
religion just doesn't seem to occur to the First Lady.

While her husband and other prominent Democrats have been
denouncing conservative Christians as the "extreme radical
right," Mrs. Clinton claims a newly discovered affinity with them
because of what Newsweek calls "ridicule of her spirituality as
flaky New Age blather."

Of course, it is an elementary Christian duty to welcome the
repentant sinner -- but Mrs. Clinton is not claiming to have
changed at all. Her claim is that she has always held views
which, if genuine, would have made her an outcast in her
husband's administration.

This administration's cultural radicalism has enraged many
Americans, despite good economic news and some foreign policy
successes. The Clinton campaign's internal slogan in 1992 was,
"It's the economy, stupid." But they're finding out it's not the
economy -- it's the culture. Today's liberals are striving to get
on the right side of the culture wars, but it's time they matched
their deeds to their words and to their photo opportunities.

(end)

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