Much of this thread dissects the “statistics” presented in the graph. So how can you back up your claim that liberals/blue-staters “mock” morals and family values?

I think what liberals mock is the hypocrisy of social conservatives and the often unrealistic ways that they try to enforce those values in society — NOT the values in of themselves. For example, abstinence. Few liberals would argue that rising teen pregnancy rates are a GOOD thing. What they mock is abstinence-only education because they see it as unrealistic and ineffective. On adulterous politicians, my liberal friends are mostly indifferent. They view a politician’s private life as largely irrelevant, provided it does not affect the quality of his/her public service. What they mock is the self-righteousness of conservative politicians, who for all their trumpeting about family values and for indeed adopting the safeguarding of “family values” as part of their political platform, do not seem to be any more immune to questionable behavior than liberal politicians. It is also interesting to note that while Democrats such as John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer ended their political careers, Ensign and Vitter are still in the Senate, Gingrich remains prominent, Larry Craig refused to resign, and I don’t believe there is any true expectation for Sanford to resign either.

Meanwhile, there are a number of moral issues that liberals take the higher ground on, and this includes torture. Just ask yourselves: would Jesus have supported torture? For even questioning the dubious morality and effectiveness of torture, liberals are constantly mocked by Republicans from Limbaugh to Sarah Palin (see “read them their rights” from her convention speech).

If it is not a moral/value that conservatives share, conservatives do not seem to have any qualms whatsoever about belittling liberal beliefs and trying to shut down discussion.

On the point you are making, don’t you think it’s a little funny that those who, in your words, routinely mock morality are actually the ones who better live up to it? Of course, I’m talking about a very narrow sexual ethic, but this is what the so-called conservatives harp on about so much. And I’m not sure if the divide is as clear as you claim — I don’t see any more opposition to divorce on the right than on the left. I don’t see much difference in approaches to adultery, even to pre-marital sex for that matter. The big difference I see relates to homosexual activities, and here, I don’t know what’s worse — singling out gays for their immoral behavior, or saying that there is no moral issue whatsoever.

On the content of your post, what you don’t quite seem to be grasping (or at least acknowledging) despite people pointing it out to you repeatedly is that the perceived divide between parties is not, “Republicans are virtuous while Democrats are evil” but rather that far too often traditional moral values in regards to sexuality, life, family, etc. (value which you and I share, so far as I know) are routinely mocked in leftist political circles and given respect (though not necessarily obedience) in conservative ones.

I seriously don’t understand why you see fit to carry the standard cultural leftist talking points and mock conservatives for expressing respect for “family values”. Would you really rather that both parties openly mocked them? Would that somehow be better?

Well you didn’t actually point that out. The statistics you cite are irrelevant at best (deliberately misleading at worst) to supporting that claim. You’ve failed to address any of the legitimate criticisms of the divorce or teenage birth statistics, which suggests you are more interested in partisan mudslinging than accuracy.

Moreover, your eagerness to paint people who advocate sexual ethics and family values as hypocrites is somewhat bizarre, given that you also advocate those things, albeit in a rather idiosyncratic fashion. As to your parade of horribles, the ‘no enemies to the left’ schtick gets tiresome, even when I agree with you.

I’m not sure why MM thinks it’s even worthwhile to waste time putting together specious statistics in service of such a petty point.

Aren’t you at all embarassed by these posts of yours?

But then his findings wouldn’t match his presuppositions, and his feigned objectivity would be discovered. Not to mention, making authoritative, chest-thumping accusations that aren’t based on objective analysis is much more fun.

I make no claim that people in red states don’t engage in sexually immoral behavior, ditto that of Republicans. Nor do I claim that Democrats do. FTR, I’m not a Republican, and have little use for that party. I think it’s so faulty and wrong headed on a host of issues that I can only find one major party that I find worse.

Never mind that we could easily find a ranking Republican operative with a history of serial moral failings and find a charming Democratic couple who have been faithfully married for 50 years. It means nothing because we could just as easily find a ranking Democrat with serial moral failings and a charming Republican couple who have been married for 50 years. The differences are that as a parties and a demographics go, one group is quite lax regarding (or even supportive of) immorality and the other not quite so. One lobbies for moral standards regardless of individual failings, the other lobbies to demolish those moral standards or characterize them as good.

If charts like these can be used to legitimately accuse or condemn people based on their party preference (something I reject), then do it up right. Get granular in your analysis, and look at things like unwed pregnancies, abortion rates and live birth ratios. Get rid of your broadband criteria on porn and look actual sales of all varities of porn. Compare marriage-divorce ratios and marriage to single parenthood. Then look up prostitution, rape, murder and other violent crimes, illicit drug use, etc.

I assume by “sku” you mean “skew”. Anyway, I most certainly DO NOT know this. It sounds like grappling at straws — the only reason people in red states engage in sexually immoral behavior is because they are not Republican supporters. Huh?

1. An expression of agreement that is not supported by real conviction

2. Insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have

First you have to establish that someone or some group proclaims something like “x is wrong, except when I do it”. Frankly, that’s not demonstrated in the least by your graphs. In fact, if you were to actually discuss these things with someone of a conservative bent you might find that they make no exceptions for themselves even if they are personally prone to or have committed such offenses. For example, I sin and have a strong propensity toward certain sins. However, I don’t for a moment think that it is okay for me to do it, and in contrast to some others, I don’t try to claim that it’s okay altogether or minimize the gravity for me or anyone else.

Second, you had to have to manage and narrow your data in a very specific, non-organic, and unreasonable manner to “prove this right wing hypocrisy”. But I suppose the good end you were getting at justifies it all.

Third, you’re not a dummy or an amateur – you look at numbers for a living. You have to know that this is garbage. It is not nearly granular enough of a look to determine anything of merit. You know full well that in all probability a couple large blue cities in a rural red state sku the numbers for the state as a whole. If so, that would say nothing about the hypocrisy of the those on the right, but much about the values of the left.