It was hard to watch the returns come in last night. Really hard. After leaving work in such an optimistic mood, seeing the actual results came as a shock. It's one thing for the Republicans to retain the White House, but to do it with such a huge margin in the popular vote, a difference of 3% and more than 3 millions votes, that's disconcerting. And the race for the White House was only half the story.

What's really bothersome is that a) the Republicans increased the margin in the House and it looks to me that the Democrats might not have control of the House again in my lifetime b) the Republicans increased the margin in the Senate and it looks to me that the Democrats might not have control of the Senate again in my lifetime and c) Bush got more than 50% of the vote and will perceive a huge mandate along with a more agreeable Congress to put forth his radical conservative agenda which means more tax cuts, regressive changes in social programs, rolling back environmental protection, faith-based decision making, and extremely conservative court nominees including at least one and as many as four Supreme Court judges that will change the face of the law in this country not for four years, but maybe for forty.

Democrats across the country have some serious soul searching to do. It's obvious that we cannot win with the current strategies, most notably in the South and across the Midwest. When we go into an election with so many states unwinable it makes the margin for error dangerously small. I had hoped that a Kerry presidency would make efforts to bring people together in "Red" states in a way that Bush has failed to do in the "Blue" states, but that's not going to happen now.

Democrats are in a very precarious position, it seems to me. Only a major disaster in the country is going to shift the balance of power. And while there are some psycho-liberals who would welcome something catastrophic to happen in America, I am not one of them. I want our country to succeed. I want our country to be strong. I just want it to happen in a more progressive fashion.

Life will go on.