There's a lot of relief and jubilation going around in the conservative end of the blogosphere this morning... and some serious thinking as well. A little something for everyone, you might say.
* For instance, if you are a Republican, you may choose to resist the urge to do a bit of gloating. Or if you're Frank J., you might indulge - just a tad.
* If you're a Democrat, you may be a bit depressed. Thinkling Shrode has some words of wisdom, penned before the voting in order to be relevant to either side.
* Michelle Malkin outlines the winners and the losers of this election here.
* LaShawn reminds us that, as we all hope happens in such contests, the better man won.
* Ambra from Nykola.com (and the bloggers she reads) observes that this election was not about the economy or terrorism or any of that - it was about morality in our society.
* Dana from Think Pink believes that God - and Evangelical voters - did make the difference in this election.
* Randy from The Upward Way Press asks what we have learned from this election. Indeed, when it comes to being a gracious loser, John Kerry has outdistanced Al Gore by light-years.
* Get Religion is signing on with the Post-Election Peace Pledge, which sounds very good to me.
* Chris from stewieBLOGS wonders if we can just move on from here, despite the bitter division we have seen in these last months.
* Shane at Confessions of an Average Youth Minster has some thoughts on the church and our need to recapture our position in this society: LOVE.
* My own thoughts are in a similar vein as Chris'. It has been painful to see the division in this country - and within the Body of Christ - run so deep and so wide over politics. There appears to be a fundamental disagreement on how things should be in our country, and I don't see any political candidate being able to heal that breach.
Aside from the liberals who keep idly threatening to move to Canada or France if the election doesn't go their way, there are people who will make serious decisions that will profoundly affect their lives solely based on the results of this election, and I think it's a shame. CoWorkerS informed me this morning that his wife, who is a dedicated third grade teacher, has decided to quit teaching due to her disagreement with President Bush's education policies. That is a shame. She is a liberal, like many teachers closely aligned with the NEA. But she cares about kids. She loves her job. And she's willing to give that up because she feels so strongly about President Bush. Her husband has been pushing her to take her master's degree and teach at the college level, and it looks like she'll probably go that route. It just seems short-sighted to me, whether I agree with her politics or not.
I just want the bitterness and hatred to stop. I want to stop hearing the rabid talk show callers recycling the same tired and discredited arguments against the President. I want to stop hearing people parroting Fahrenheit 9/11 "facts". Thankfully, we're likely to stop hearing about John Kerry and his questionable record and his flip-flops, at least on a national scale. But all of this venom is still out there, and I wonder how often we will see it resurface.
We must keep praying. We must humble ourselves and pray, we must seek His face and turn from our wicked ways - our own, not just repenting for the wickedness of our society. Then our God will hear from heaven, and I believe that He alone can heal our land.
* And as a last word, go see Ambra's collection of photographs from election day. Priceless.
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