"Thus, the controversy about the Moral Majority arises not only from its views, but from its name - which, in the minds of many, seems to imply that only one set of public policies is moral and only one majority can possibly be right"
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Kennedy is doing something more surgical than disagreeing with the Moral Majority; he is disputing its right to frame the argument before anyone else speaks. By targeting the name, he spotlights branding as politics: “Moral Majority” isn’t a neutral label but a preemptive claim that converts policy preferences into a referendum on decency and belonging. If they are the moral ones, opponents aren’t merely wrong; they’re suspect. If they are the majority, dissenters aren’t fellow citizens; they’re fringe.
The sentence is built to expose that rhetorical trap. “Not only...but” lets him concede that their views are contentious while pivoting to the deeper problem: the movement’s self-anointment. He’s warning that language can launder power. A group can be a faction and still speak as if it were the nation’s conscience.
The timing matters. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Moral Majority rose as a religious-right force in American electoral politics, aligning with conservative causes on abortion, school prayer, and “family values,” and helping reshape the Republican coalition. Kennedy, a leading liberal Democrat and a Catholic with his own moral vocabulary, is pushing back against the idea that one religiously inflected agenda owns the word “moral.” His subtext is pluralism: in a democracy, moral reasoning is contested, coalitions are temporary, and majorities are not proof of righteousness. The real controversy, he implies, is a movement trying to turn political disagreement into moral disqualification.
The sentence is built to expose that rhetorical trap. “Not only...but” lets him concede that their views are contentious while pivoting to the deeper problem: the movement’s self-anointment. He’s warning that language can launder power. A group can be a faction and still speak as if it were the nation’s conscience.
The timing matters. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Moral Majority rose as a religious-right force in American electoral politics, aligning with conservative causes on abortion, school prayer, and “family values,” and helping reshape the Republican coalition. Kennedy, a leading liberal Democrat and a Catholic with his own moral vocabulary, is pushing back against the idea that one religiously inflected agenda owns the word “moral.” His subtext is pluralism: in a democracy, moral reasoning is contested, coalitions are temporary, and majorities are not proof of righteousness. The real controversy, he implies, is a movement trying to turn political disagreement into moral disqualification.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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