Colin’s blog had a copy of a NY Times story today, which he calls a “…brilliantly simple clarification on why Bush won the election. He got more votes – its that simple. Its nothing to do with religion, or any other dark movement within the US.” I agree that it’s not a “dark movement”, and I agree with the author, David Brooks, that the liberal reaction to the election is akin to the “rage of the drowning man”. I also agree that the exit poll question that has everyone up in arms about “moral values” was worded in such a way that the results might be misleading.

However, I don’t believe for one second that it had nothing to do with religion. Brooks tries to refute this by claiming that no more evangelicals voted for Bush this time than in 2000, but that just means they’ve voted for him both times and in no way relates to whether or not their votes were influenced by religion. A week before the election, before we heard anything about this morality question on CNN, I mentioned a conversation I had with a friend about how Americans vote based on things like religion and gun control. This isn’t a new phenomenon. This wasn’t a sudden uptick in religious fervour. This is the status quo in America right now. The news media were expecting the issues to be war or terrorism or the economy, and it seems they weren’t. Now the media need to explain themselves, so there’s an epidemic of conservatism gripping the US, right?

Ask yourself this, and be honest: would George W. Bush ever have become president if a) his father hadn’t been president, and b) he wasn’t an evangelical? Of course not. I think the former got him to the primary. I think the latter got him to the Oval Office.

I offer up two examples from the last few days of how this election — and this presidency — most certainly have something to do with religion:

• The Washington Post says that christian groups themselves feel they spearheaded the Bush win.
• Karl Rove has said that Bush will defintely seek a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Reuters believes this stance was crucial in gaining a bigger share of the conservative vote.