Democracy Is Messy
One last stream of thought before I take a break for grieving. First, Andrew Sullivan (which echoes what my friend Adam was saying last night--it's time to focus on states' rights):

A MANDATE FOR CULTURE WAR: That's Bill Bennett's conclusion. He won't be the only one. What we're seeing, I think, is a huge fundamentalist Christian revival in this country, a religious movement that is now explicitly political as well. It is unsurprising, of course, given the uncertainty of today's world, the devastating attacks on our country, and the emergence of so many more liberal cultures in urban America. And it is completely legitimate in this country for such views to be represented in public policy, however much I disagree with them. But the intensity of the passion, and the inherently totalist nature of religiously motivated politics means deep social conflict if we are not careful. Our safety valve must be federalism. We have to live and let live. As blue states become more secular, and red states become less so, the only alternative to a national religious war is to allow different states to pursue different options. That goes for things like decriminalization of marijuana, abortion rights, stem cell research and marriage rights. Forcing California and Mississippi into one model is a recipe for disaster. Federalism is now more important than ever. I just hope that Republican federalists understand this. I fear they don't.

Here's Bill "Texas Hold 'Em" Bennett's summarizing para from his National Review column:

Having restored decency to the White House, President Bush now has a mandate to affect policy that will promote a more decent society, through both politics and law. His supporters want that, and have given him a mandate in their popular and electoral votes to see to it. Now is the time to begin our long, national cultural renewal ("The Great Relearning," as novelist Tom Wolfe calls it) — no less in legislation than in federal court appointments. It is, after all, the main reason George W. Bush was reelected.

That's some scary stuff to a progressive like myself (frankly, it sounds like Cambodia back in the Khmer Rouge days, but I don't want to get too hyperbolic). But we gotta have hopeful words to keep ourselves going, for those I turn to this post from Pandagon:

I just got an enormously wise e-mail from Chris Rasmussen:

I'm just worried that our temper tantrum in losing leads to a complete demonizing of Southerners, or Christians, or whatever -- the very people we might need to persuade later (and, judging by the election returns, they seem to have a great deal of pull). Fact is: we have to face the fact that a lot of people *are* uncomfortable with gay marriage -- and, rather than demonizing them as homophobes, realize that we need to make progress in persuading them (and wait for the inevitable acceptance of homosexuality -- remember, racial intermarriage was opposed in the late 60s and it just took time).

Let's not become what the other side has become: happy (well, now, not so much) in their own cocoon. We're all guilty of it, to some respect, but we (and as a Deaniac, I've gone through it twice) have also fallen victim to the echo chamber and assumed that everyone believes what we do because, well, we talk to people who agree with us. I'm sure that we'll hear the inevitable "There's No Evidence, But Could Diebold Be Behind This" stuff -- which will be going on and around the Internet and will make us, well, look crazy.

Chris is right, I'm wrong. The bigotry that has surfaced in this election is, to me, horrifying, but we must begin calling it by its proper name: Ignorance. Mocking those we disagree with is a losing strategy, both in the hearts and minds category and from an electoral standpoint.

Our new effort begins today. A new effort to find frames for tolerance, language for inclusion, and arguments that will persuade and unite. We lost because we not only conceded the South, but those who think like the South.

Leave no mind behind.

Defeat is a terrible thing to taste, but an incurious mind is an even more terrible thing to waste.