It's not that bad

It's undeniably true that the driving issues in this campaign, besides security, were gun control, abortion and, most crucially, gay marriage. Karl Rove and his minions were extremely skillful at realizing a strategy that they outlined after the last election to build up a rock solid base of support among evangelicals.

How policies, such as the free use of guns and the criminalization of abortion, that together will result in uncountable deaths and untold suffering, become the "moral" choice I leave you to ponder. Why aren't the pulpits thundering about poverty and unjust war and the death of innocents in general? According to the New York Times, "voters who cited honesty as the most important quality in a candidate broke 2 to 1 in Mr. Bush's favor."

The most mendacious administration in American history gets the award for integrity.

A gang of crooks led by a known liar is the chosen guardian of moral values.

God works in mysterious ways, indeed.

The Democrats are not without responsibility, of course. Kerry tried to fudge every one of those same issues, especially abortion and gay marriage. And gay activists, by stressing marriage -- a vestige of religious ooga booga that maybe the state should get out of altogether -- over rights, about which most Americans agree, played into Rove's hands.

The administration will attempt to do the following: make the tax cuts for the rich permanent; privatize social security; pack the Supreme Court with right-wingers; overrule Roe v. Wade; expand the military; invade Iran; institute a draft; beef up the Patriot Act; continue to dismantle health and environmental protection laws; unloose the exploiters on those few public lands not yet despoiled; attempt to initiate a national sales tax as the final nail in the coffin of the progressive taxes; turn health care over to private business; and on and on.

You'll note that most of this agenda is about power and money, very little -- beyond tossing the bone of abortion to the Christian right -- about "morality."

Progressives are actually in a great position. We are more organized and unified than at any time since at least the 1930s. We agree with at least half the people on the kind of country we want to live in. And we have the high moral ground on the issues that actually affect the way people live.

What is needed is a clear articulation of the values that drive most progressives.

And the creation of organizations for influencing policy and politics independent of the fatally compromized Democratic Party.