I think it is going to be important for the President and the people of this country to start talking to instead of at each other again. Many are suggesting that President Bush needs to reach out to the Left to make this happen. Wrong. The Left needs to do the reaching out to middle America. A lot of people voted, and one side won, fairly handily if you look at the totality of the Senate, House, Gubernatorial, and Presidential elections. The Left lost after running a very vitriolic campaign and needs to do the reaching out right now. The Republicans won by reaching out to middle America and welcoming them to their newly erected Big Tent. The outcome of this election, however, holds a clear message for both the Left and the Right:

For the Loyal Oppositionists on the Left: You need to do the reaching out. You spewed hatred and venom for the last year or tacitly approved of those who did - insulting anyone and everyone that disagreed with you as stupid, backward, and Nazi-like. You don't get someone to reach out to you by comparing them to Hitler or embracing those who do. Middle America isn't swayed by the politics of hate - from either party. Your fellow Americans are not the enemy. Interanalize that first word in the label "Loyal Opposition." Bush reached out to Libertarians, conservative Democrats, and those concerned about national security and terrorism more than any other issue - and he won an election with the highest turnout in history. Nobody can argue that the populace was not motivated this time around. This was a repudiation of the politics of hatred and smears. The faster you distance yourselves from 9/11 conspiracists, Kitty Kelly, Michael Moore, and the like, the sooner you will be trusted again by those in the middle who are turned off by that nonsense. If you really needs those crutches to keep your base motivated, you have bigger problems than I thought.

For the Big Tent Republicans: keep the implicit promises made to those who came over to help elect President Bush, the promise to be a more inclusive party, to be uniters and not dividers. The election was not won by the religious right alone and they had better understand that. Only a few million votes out of over 100 million separate the "values" on the left from the "values" on the right. Those of you on the religious right need to realize that you are not a majority even in your own party. If you start speaking as if the election were a mandate for religious beliefs to be passed into law and for an ultra-conservative agenda to be enacted, you are going to see the the Big Tent empty out and collapse in the next national election, and it will be a long damn time (if ever) until you can convince us to come back. Don't doubt this. Think about what a weak candidate Kerry was. Think about the fact that the economy is improving. Think about the fact that we were attacked on our own soil and that our President responded decisively and effectively and there have been no further attacks. Then think about how close he came to losing the election. The Big Tent is the only way to remain nationally relevant.