As October draws to a close and Election Day nears, we are forced to confront our views about the presidential candidates. And in this most urgent of elections, it is imperative to base our decisions logically.

Unfortunately, many people aren’t doing that.

“Since the president’s meltdown in the first debate,” columnist Arianna Huffington said, “followed in quick succession by Paul Bremer’s confession, the CIA’s no al-Qaeda/Saddam link report and the woeful September job numbers, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out why George W. Bush is still standing.”

Huffington said that even though it is obvious Bush has let us down, many people have turned a blind eye because of being carefully conditioned. “Thanks to the Bush campaign’s unremitting fear-mongering, millions of voters are reacting not with their linear and logical left brain and with their more emotional right brain,” Huffington continues.

And the Bush campaign, from its restless security threats to the show of Sept. 11, 2004 commiseration flouted during the Republican National Convention, has gone to great lengths to perpetuate this fear. Why?

Perhaps they want to take our attention away from the reality of the situation: We aren’t any safer now than we were before. The Taliban has regrouped and is flourishing, and the job in Afghanistan is left undone. Bush has ignored the warnings and reasoning of analysts in the State Department, Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. military, foreign governments and yes, his American public. He has failed to deploy an adequate protective force and has failed to explain to the American people why his plan was really even executed in the first place.

But the fact that Saddam’s regime didn’t have nuclear weapons and Iraq didn’t have meaningful ties with al Qaeda – that doesn’t sway voters when all they worry about is an impending mythical terror from which Bush has proclaimed himself our savior.

“As long as we’re operating from our lizard brains and reason takes a back seat to more primal needs,” Huffington said, “George W. Bush will continue to survive the logic-based attacks on his ever-escalating failures.”

Some influential figures and corporations have avoided this approach and have taken a stand. The non-partisan New Yorker magazine, which has never taken a clear political position in its 80-year history, could not remain silent any longer. “The Bush administration has been one of failure, arrogance, and … incompetence,” the magazine states. “The administration has caused a $400 billion federal deficit … it has weakened our environmental protection … it has opened up 60 million acres for oil exploitation … there are crippling limits on stem-cell research … ” The list goes on and on.

This Election Day, think with your head – because the Bush administration will try to scare you. It’s made me absolutely terrified.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.