The stronger-than-expected role of moral values signals that the nation's values agenda is likely to be dominated by "social morality" concerns for abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research--issues vital to Bush's base.
The election also marks a defeat for progressive groups who tried to cast "social justice" concerns of poverty, war and the environment as moral issues.
Either way, Jim Wallis, a self-described progressive evangelical, said neither blue states nor red states should try to claim a corner on the values market.
"The right wants to say these are the only moral values; the left wants to say only our issues are moral values," said Wallis, convener of the Washington-based Call to Renewal anti-poverty group. "The truth is there are moral values across the spectrum."
Bush's embrace of socially conservative values rallied his evangelical base, who turned out in record force for him at the polls.
One reason why values may have emerged as so important is because pollsters did not survey the topic four years ago.
John Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron, said "moral values" can mean different things to different voters. But typically, "when ordinary people think of morality, they think of traditional sexual morality. ... They don't think of social justice."
By Kevin Eckstrom & Michele Melendez
Religion News Service