In the wake of Bush’s gobsmacking victory, the insight de jour is that voters (or rather slightly more than 50% of them) ignored the quagmire in Iraq, the unsustainable economic situation, and the general incompetence of the administration, preferring to focus on the issue of the candidates’ “morality” and “character”–secular euphemisms for being religious. Yet just as it is transparently obvious that there was no link between Saddam and 911, I cannot for the life of me connect any notion of real spiritual values with the sort of crony capitalism facilitated by the Bush White House. I mean, where exactly in the Bible does it say blessed are those who grant massive tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of society? I await with interest Paul Krugman’s howl of outrage in his next NYT op-ed piece. Meanwhile, the title for James Wolcott’s latest post to his blog must echo the rueful cries being heard across the Northeast and Pacific coast of the United States: Anyone Know How to Make a Noose?