The Values Racket

National Journal's Policy Council presents: "The Annotated State of the Union Address" Available free on The Policy Council's web site through NationalJournal.com. The special feature includes a complete State of the Union transcript embedded with reactions, viewpoints and background policy information from a wide variety of influential organizations.

Since the 2004 presidential election differences in American values and cultural attitudes have been continually picked at like a scab in Congress and the media. From the hand-wringing over the "values vote" to the shouting about Terri Schiavo, the nuclear option, intelligent design, and Samuel Alito, the culture war has apparently resumed, after a brief post-9/11 armistice. Beneath the clamor the national consciousness seems broadly, if quietly, uneasy. Much of the news in the past year or so—political scandal, corporate malfeasance, prisoner torture—has prompted questions about American ideals. For this, The Atlantic's fourth annual State of the Union special section, we asked ...