I Love the Smell of Victory in the Morning

At this writing, it's looking like the Democrats have taken not just the House, but the Senate as well, and I am so happy that I could almost cry. This is the first time in six years that I've felt any hope or optimism about the state of our nation, the first time in six years that I've seen more than a glimmer of understanding by the majority of my fellow Americans of just what a disaster Bush & Co., have visited upon us and the rest of the world. Today, I am no longer just another weeping, hand-wringing Cassandra, but witness to a nationwide repudiation of what the Republican party has represented since at least 1994.

All that said, while I want the Democrats to enjoy their resurgence . . . well, as Han Solo said in Star Wars: "Great, kid, don't get cocky!" They need to clean House (and Senate), but more than that, they need to not screw this up.

People are arguing about whether this is a mandate, and I am of two minds about that. The Democratic majorities are slim in some places, and they will certainly be subject to scrutiny. However, it is also true that the Republicans not only lost seats, but that, as of today, they have also failed to take a single seat from an incumbent Democrat. This has never happened before in U.S. history. Even Bush had to admit publicly that the Republicans took a "thumping."

Whatever you want to call it, though, I think it's pretty clear that right now the main message to the Democrats is that this is their chance to demonstrate how they differ substantially from the Republicans. We expect that the next two years will be neither an illustration of "same stuff, different party," nor merely a chance to exact revenge for the past twelve years. We gave the Democrats back their power, and now we expect them to use it responsibly, to repair our tattered republic and polish its tarnished image.

Don't screw this up, guys. We're counting on you.