There's been shit galore in the blogosphere (that works as a sentence on its own, of course) about the US Elections from both sides of the political divide. From the sophisticated Four.More.Years, through the liberal hand wringing, wailing and gnashing of teeth at the disaster of those Four.More.Years, down the blind alley of the thumping mandate (3% of those who voted) and on to the it woz the God botherers wot won it, there has been no shortage of ill considered opinion to digest.

It's the God botherer thing that interests me, slightly. True enough as far as it goes, this notion of the evangelical vote being decisive, but there are those who would have us believe this is the end of secular politics in the US for a generation or more, as if things can't possibly change in the forseeable future. As if there's been a sea change in the make up of the American people that now makes it impossible for a non evangelical politician to make any headway whatsoever. What bollocks. All it proves is that the Republicans were more efficient in getting their sleeping giants to the poll booths than the Democrats were.

Tacking on the gay marriage thing was a master stroke, bringing the spiritual Luddites on board, and Kerry's camp couldn't bring out enough of their natural allies to counter them. I'm thinking of those young people who don't want to be American idiots. (Not my phrase, for those of you over forty who don't have kids.) There were high hopes in Democrat circles that they were going to do the business, but for the most part they stayed away. It wasn't enough for them that Kerry wasn't Bush. Which reflects pretty well on them and badly on those who took their support for granted.

Kids, eh. You can never rely on them.