ZNet |U.S. | The Greater of Two Evils

ZNet |U.S. | The Greater of Two Evils: "Arundhati Roy wrote, "For many of us who feel estranged from mainstream politics, there are rare, ephemeral moments of celebration."

For those of us on the fringes of mainstream electoral politics, there are rare moments of despair and disbelief. Leaving aside the cynicism of the electoral system, there could not have been a worse result in the US elections.

The issue is not necessarily who won or who lost. In contrast to the serious issues of communalism and poverty during the elections in India, the looming issue presented by both sides was faith, family and the flag. And voters followed suit.

Exit polls indicated that 'moral values' was the highest priority for voters, trumping even the economy and terrorism, as if the war on terrorism is not "immoral". Of voters who said moral values was their top issue, 79 percent voted for Bush. The New York Times reported that voters who cited honesty as the most important quality in a candidate broke 2 to 1 in Mr. Bush's favour.
What do we make of this? Afterall, America has voted. America has voted but can we seriously tell ourselves that it does not matter whom they voted for or what they voted for. "