THE SILVER LINING?

It's all up to the Republicans now.

Looking beyond the disappointment of John Kerry's defeat, Democrats should see the silver lining. If Republicans have all the power, they also have all the problems. Kerry would have had the problems without the power, for you can be sure that this Congress, led by Southerners like Tom DeLay, dripping with Christian fundamentalism, would have blocked and blamed him at every turn.
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We go through political cycles in America, ones that prevent the tyranny of the majority from becoming real tyranny. The lesson of our history is that our cyclical system, the alternation of power between parties, takes place when one party takes full control and starts to overreach. The self-correcting mechanism is automatic.

Democrats, don't despair. Bush will overreach. The correction will begin.

Let's hope it's not too late when it happens.

UPDATE: Robert Scheer on the same subject:

After all, at some point the Bush White House will have to stop blaming the Clinton administration for its own mistakes. If the Republicans running all three branches of our government continue to pile up outrageous debt, shackle scientific progress with religious fundamentalism, erode civil liberties and thrash about uselessly abroad, the responsibility will be all theirs.

The GOP has met its old bugaboo, incompetent Big Government, and it is them.