Be Humble in Victory.
The Democrats were given a gift by the American people, the trust to lead, to do the right thing. It's time to put up or shut up. This wasn't a sweeping mandate for the Democratic Party, it was a sweeping mandate of "we don't like what's going on and it has to change." I don't feel that the Democrats entirely earned this victory so much as had it handed to them. The anti-Bush anti-war sentiment was their greatest weapon. The Republican scandals helped a lot as well. It's time to earn this victory with action. Hopefully the Democrats will have learned some important lessons this week. If you follow your party leaders blindly even when you know those decisions are wrong you will pay the price. The strong armmed tactics of the Republicans to keep the ranks in line is bad politics. If you know a particular piece of legislation is good then support it no matter which party brings it up. Forcing your members to go along on legislation that may be bad for their constituents is not good politics. Congress must also remember that their constituents are the people that live in their district, not the lobbyists that throw money at them. Another lesson to be learned is that you have been given your office by the American public. If you abuse that public trust you should be gone. The Democrats need to deal with ethics issues swiftly and justly. Trying to cover things up in order to retain power doesn't fly. You retain power by doing the right thing, by showing you can lead.
The sad part of this election is that the moderate Republicans that were most likely to work with the Democrats were the one who were defeated. This doesn't give the Republicans much incentive to move towards a more centrist position though clearly their far-right position isn't resonating with the public.
I guess my message to the Democrats (and Republicans) is this: Don't be a dumbass. Learn from the mistakes of the past, do what's right for the people of this country. Show us that you can get the job done because if you don't we'll find someone else who can. We'll be watching. We are paying attention.
5:54:27 PM 
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