Dana Beyer, MD, for Maryland State Delegate 2010

Moral Values 2010

It’s a very big secret, but most Americans are actually liberals. Yes, the “L Word.”

We are still a single country, even if red and blue, because we live and thrive under a secular, liberal Constitution. The radical conservatives can’t bear that; they become enraged when conservative Justices become more liberal as they age, because the Justices are working under the rule of a liberal document, the glory of the American experiment.

As Democrats, and as Americans, we have to reclaim the word “liberal” and remind people that the moral values they hold dear are liberal values. And while religious values are very important to many, they are personal, subject to interpretation and revision over the ages, and are not meant to be applied to the American public sphere.

They can, and do, inform the individual conscience, the individual moral code. But, as recognized by the Founding Fathers, there is no single religious moral code that can be applied to this state or this country, only the American moral code.

And that means respect for the individual, regardless of race, creed, ethnicity, citizenship, sex, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity. Americans simply do not believe in judging people based on their innate characteristics. They may still do so, out of habit, or ignorance, but it is not part of America’s moral code to do so.

I respect all individuals based on the content of their character, and not their innate characteristics. As my friend, state Senator Jamie Raskin (D-20), said to a right-leaning state Senator in 2006, “Madame, when you took the oath of office you put your hand on a Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution; you did not put your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.”