BY DON WILDMON | AFA Founder/Chairman

Having read many articles about the role of the values voters in the last election, I felt it would be good to tell our friends in New York and Hollywood something about those of us they so strongly disparage.

If it will make liberal Democrats and media feel any better, I will admit that my intellect doesn’t measure up to theirs. You see, I live in one of the red counties. And, according to the liberal elite, people who live in a red county are just backward.

In 27 years as head of a national ministry, I have learned much.

I have learned that those who cry "tolerance" the loudest are the most intolerant people you will meet. Columnist Thomas Friedman accuses us values voters of promoting "intolerance" because we won’t accept his liberalism. If that is true, then he is equally as intolerant because he won’t accept our conservatism.

Those who cry "censorship" the loudest are the biggest censors in the business. It’s okay to teach the theory of evolution in our schools, but we must censor the theory of intelligent design. The intellectuals tell us that evolution is fact, and intelligent design is a fantasy.

Those who say it is dangerous to mix faith and politics never hesitate to mix their faith (secularism) with politics.

Maureen Dowd, a New York Times columnist, says President Bush "ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq." Ms. Dowd, our view is that he deposed a dictator in Iraq so that we no longer have to fear that dictator using WMD in America.

Sheryl Mccarthy of Newsday accuses Bush of "pandering to people’s fear, petty interests and prejudices" against homosexuals. Ms. Mccarthy thinks we should approve homosexual marriage because she does. I would remind Ms. Mccarthy there is a difference between pandering and appealing. A candidate who supports marriage being only between one man and one woman appeals to us.

Sidney Blumenthal, writing in Salon, claims that the new Senate majority is "more theocratic than Republican." Could it be that perhaps the Senate minority is more secular than Democratic?

Sean Wilentz of Princeton says that "religious fanaticism" has "seized control of the federal government." Perhaps most Americans have seen where those of Dr. Wilentz’s ilk want to take us, and we don’t want to go there.
John R. Macarthur, publisher of Harper’s magazine, is critical of President Bush because of his "subservience to Jesus Christ and the Christian god, without the least concern about whether it might offend me." Mr. Macarthur, we regret that our Christian God offends you, but we aren’t about to change our faith to accommodate your bigotry.

I have a message for these and others like them: People do live west of Madison Avenue and east of Hollywood and Vine. They really do. Regardless of what you say when you talk among yourselves (and I often think you talk only among yourselves), we are real people. Honest. We even walk upright on two legs.

Now I know those of us living in the red counties aren’t as intelligent, educated, wealthy or "successful" as you, and we can never measure up to the elite status that you have bestowed on yourselves.

But we do have the ability to make our own decisions and reach our own conclusions. We can understand what the President says when he speaks to the nation, despite Dan Rather and company feeling they must explain it to us dummies.

Just like you, we go to work, pay our taxes, and worry about the education our children are getting. We have opinions about what is important, just like you. We also have the right to cast our ballot for anyone we choose, and for any reason we choose, just like you.

Unlike most of you, most of us attend worship pretty regularly. Our faith is a central part of our life. Because of our Judeo- Christian worldview, we view society differently than you do. You can’t understand us because our worldview is foreign to you.

Garry Wills writes in the New York Times, "Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?" Well, Mr. Wills, yes. In fact we would say that it is our belief in the One born of a virgin that has led to our enlightenment.

You elite are not going to convince us of the rightness of your perspective by changing the language you use. It would help your cause, and perhaps our country, if you made an effort to understand us. You can’t do that sitting in your sacred studios in New York or Hollywood, nor with your condescending attitude. You can only understand us by involving yourself in our culture. But in doing so you run the risk that your own values may be changed.

The good part is that you don’t even have to leave home to do that. You will find values voters right in your own neighborhood. Most of them would welcome you as a friend, if you can be tolerant enough to accept them.

In closing let me say this: You think of yourselves as being the elite and us as being the ignorant. Regardless of how you view us, this is a democracy. That being true, what you consider my ignorant vote counts just as much as your "intelligent" vote.

That is called reality politics.