End of Falwell Era a Dawn of Ethics?

Jerry Falwell popularized the phrase 'moral majority'. A more direct appeal to the primacy of personal and group values would be hard to come by. Unfortunately it also conflicted with just about every tenant of public ethics - fair play, unbiased arbitration of differences, upholding the rights of minorities - those pesky ethical considerations so necessary to uphold a civil society without becoming a theocracy.

After all, a democracy based soley on the values of the majority, with no overriding ethical principles and processes, is nothing more than clubhouse democracy - great for those on the inside and a tyranny for those who fail to see eye to eye with the majority.

Here's to a bright and shining future that revisits the ethics of the enlightenment, not just the values of our various born or chosen groups, nations, and religions.

And here's to journalists, politicians, and citizens who begin again to recognize that it is important for a free and fair democracy to consider, uphold and support public ethics when we evaluate issues and when we vote, as well as the various personal and group values we each hold