Talk about values in Washington

 

This is a big weekend in the nation’s capital.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are holding a meeting there, which always draws vehement protests and demonstrations.

Several stores in Georgetown are boarding up their windows in anticipation of possible vandalism by protesters in town for the World Bank and IMF meetings.

One woman who worked in a Georgetown-area store has been injured after being hit in the head by a brick thrown by a protester through the window of an Abercrombie and Fitch store and a United Colors of Benetton store near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street…

So what does this demonstrate? It’s one thing to oppose an economic model or speak out and work for the equitable distribution of wealth in the global economy. But what does throwing bricks propose? Violence and hostility.

And speaking of who’s saying what about values this weekend, Evangelicals are holding a summit in Washington to examine where the GOP presidential candidates stand on what most matters to them.

The 2,000 activists attending the Values Voter Summit listened to the candidates, some prayed for guidance, and many expressed deep discomfort with the Republican Party’s two front-runners: former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Romney presented himself as the antiabortion, pro-family, pro-religion contender whom Christian conservatives are seeking…

Giuliani is scheduled to face the group this morning with a message that emphasizes areas where he agrees with social conservatives, such as national security, taxes and the economy.

But in the meeting halls of the Hilton Washington hotel, neither candidate engendered much enthusiasm. “I love his ideas on national security and defense, but you have to swallow the whole pill,” Tammy Leinbach, a stay-at-home mom from Maumee, Ohio, said of Giuliani. “Our international ills come because of the warped social ills we have at home.”

Wisdom from the heartland.

Craig Chorman, 54, a small-business owner from Fairport, N.Y., said he does not trust Romney’s declarations of support for conservative issues because as governor, he took different positions.

“I feel like he hasn’t been as consistent, and that concerns me,” said Chorman. “We need somebody who stands with their core beliefs instead of putting his finger up in the wind.”

Politicians seem to be in the ‘finger to the wind’ mode on most issues right now, and not just the presidential candidates. Congress is right there too, floating ideas and proposing changes based on political expediency and likelihood of winning the next election.

A lot of people are sorry to see Sen. Sam Brownback remove his candidacy.

His departure from the race was a disappointment to many here who said they voted for him in the straw poll. Brownback had spent much of his campaign talking about Christian values and stressing his stance against abortion.

“Personally, I always thought that Sam Brownback held the closest, totally consistent views,” said John Jakubczyk, a lawyer and past president of Arizona Right to Life.

He said the expectations game destroyed Brownback’s candidacy. “Everyone says, ‘Oh, we love Sam, but he can’t win.’ And that became a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Jakubczyk said.

Big media had a lot to do with that, flatly ignoring the candidacy of Sen. Brownback and dismissing him all along as a contender of consequence. Perception becomes reality in the media culture.

So now what?

Jakubczyk was more optimistic than some at the gathering. “A meeting like this helps to energize and remind us that we’ve got to get back on track,” he said. “Unfortunately, the last couple of years, after 2006, there were a lot of people who got depressed, got despondent, got upset, got worried.”

“Let’s not be depressed,” he concluded. “Let’s just get to work.”

There’s more force and value in that ethic than in a ton of bricks.