Health reform barely on values voter's radar
Kevin Eckstrom/Religion News Service
Issue date: 10/11/09 Section: Divine Intervention
Health care reform may be Priority No. 1 in Congress and at the White House, but for the 1,825 religious conservatives who gathered here for the annual Values Voter Summit last month, the subject was barely on their radar screen.
"To me, there are so many more important issues than health care right now," said John Leaman, a retired yacht builder from Lancaster, Pa. Added his wife Linda, a waitress: "I don't think it's as urgent as Obama's making it out to be." The real problem, she said, is illegal immigrants "cluttering up our emergency rooms."
Indeed, among the dozen issues that attendees cited in casting their votes in a straw poll for possible 2012 Republican presidential candidates, health care never made the list. The top three issues were abortion, protecting religious liberty and opposing same-sex marriage.
Across dozens of interviews, conservative activists insisted they do care about health care -- several people said they've helped pay neighbors' medical bills -- but they get red-faced at the idea of any government role in reforming the system.
"It's up to us to help each other; it's not the government's job to take care of us," said Karen Marsalis, a retired teacher from Deadwood, Texas, whose shirt, like her husband's, featured stars and stripes and images of the Statue of Liberty.
Just days before the summit got underway, a report by the University of Akron and the liberal-leaning group Public Religion Research found that conservative and progressive activists don't just disagree on hot-button issues on the public agenda, they can't agree on the agenda itself.
Conservative activists -- typified by the "values voters" who rallied in Washington -- picked abortion (83 percent) and same-sex marriage (65 percent) as their top two issues; just 6 percent cited health care. Progressives, meanwhile, cited poverty (74 percent) and health care (67 percent).
The only organized attention that health care received at the two-day summit was a panel discussion on "ObamaCare: Rationing Your Life Away." Judging from the voices of the "values voters," the two sides also can't seem to agree on basic facts, much less solutions.
"To me, there are so many more important issues than health care right now," said John Leaman, a retired yacht builder from Lancaster, Pa. Added his wife Linda, a waitress: "I don't think it's as urgent as Obama's making it out to be." The real problem, she said, is illegal immigrants "cluttering up our emergency rooms."
Indeed, among the dozen issues that attendees cited in casting their votes in a straw poll for possible 2012 Republican presidential candidates, health care never made the list. The top three issues were abortion, protecting religious liberty and opposing same-sex marriage.
Across dozens of interviews, conservative activists insisted they do care about health care -- several people said they've helped pay neighbors' medical bills -- but they get red-faced at the idea of any government role in reforming the system.
"It's up to us to help each other; it's not the government's job to take care of us," said Karen Marsalis, a retired teacher from Deadwood, Texas, whose shirt, like her husband's, featured stars and stripes and images of the Statue of Liberty.
Just days before the summit got underway, a report by the University of Akron and the liberal-leaning group Public Religion Research found that conservative and progressive activists don't just disagree on hot-button issues on the public agenda, they can't agree on the agenda itself.
Conservative activists -- typified by the "values voters" who rallied in Washington -- picked abortion (83 percent) and same-sex marriage (65 percent) as their top two issues; just 6 percent cited health care. Progressives, meanwhile, cited poverty (74 percent) and health care (67 percent).
The only organized attention that health care received at the two-day summit was a panel discussion on "ObamaCare: Rationing Your Life Away." Judging from the voices of the "values voters," the two sides also can't seem to agree on basic facts, much less solutions.
Be the first to comment on this story