Nothing else matters.

The thing that worries me most about the election is NOT the prospect of four more years of George W. Bush, although that's seems to be about as bad as it gets.

It's that many Americans seem to have adopted a way of thinking associated with theocratic regimes and fanatical states.

This way of thinking says that as long as you agree with a very narrow ideology, it doesn't matter if you create a total disaster.

We see this way of thinking among many fundamentalist Muslim states where opposition to Israel is the only criterion by which people vote. They can be starving in the streets and under a despot, but as long as that despot is vociferous on the subject of Israel, nothing else matters - they love him even in their misery.

And in a large chunk of America, as long as you oppose legalized abortion and gay people, nothing else matters. War, bloodshed, joblessness, destruction of the environment, widespread misery, bombs blowing the arms and legs off of Iraqi children - none of that matters. As long as you mouth the right-wing-approved faith-based cliches.