The focus on family values in political discussion is relatively new. Although William Safire has produced multiple editions of his Dictionary of American Politics, the term does not appear until the 1995 edition, when Safire includes a quote from the 1976 Republican platform: "Divorce rates, threatened neighborhoods and schools and public scandal all create a hostile atmosphere that erodes family structures and family values."

Already in 1992, however, "family values" had served as a GOP weapon in the presidential campaign. Dan Quayle attacked the television sitcom character Murphy Brown for having a child out of wedlock. An entire evening of the Republican National Convention was devoted to family values, during which Patrick Buchanan delivered a prime-time speech that warned the nation about a coming "culture war." Meanwhile, the Christian Coalition, under the leadership of televangelist Pat Robertson, who ran for the presidential nomination as a Republican in 198...

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