Tuesday, August 31, 2004

It's all Nixon's fault

Listening to Arnold tonight, I thought I was listening for the most part to a speech that could have been delivered to a democratic convention, except for the "you may be a redneck" moments.
So as well as giving us that tiresome "--gate" label, we have another thing to thank Richard Nixon for -- turning natural-born-democrat Arnold into a republican.
Now I'm listening to Ben Stein talk about how "everyone" is talking about religion rather than the economy (though not too many of the people he talks to are unemployed, I would think) and how they will elect Bush as a "man of faith".
I just don't get it -- of course, the great divide between Canada and the United States now is a religious one, with America apparently becoming increasingly religious while Canada becomes increasingly secular, but I cannot understand voting for someone based on their religion rather than their policies. Maybe Marx was right - religion is the opiate of the masses.
I thought Laura Bush did a good job with her speech tonight, though her riff about children being safe rang a little hollow when it followed her story about the woman whose three sons are in the military, two of them at Fallaujah -- ah, yes, vote for Bush and your babies will be safe, but they will grow up to go to war.
It will be a religious war, though, so I guess that's OK.

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