I think the most interesting -- and telling -- thing about this election is what NBC's exit polls point to (Jeff Jarvis sums it up here): that "moral values" and not national security or the (abysmal) economy were what drove Bush votes. To which I must respond, "In what way was John Kerry going to compromise your moral values?" Was he going to shut down churches or prevent heterosexual people from marrying one another? Was he going to deny you the right to carry a pregnancy to term or turn your children into licentious, dope-smoking ne'er-do-well's?

It flat-out sucks that for too many people, the term "moral values" implicitly carries the incomplete phrase "the world ain't right until everyone else adheres to my" in front of it.

I will now get back to my dharma. With renewed vigor, baby.

xxx c