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My sister sent me the following email about her thoughts on the Kerry loss. It's long, but a good read.

A number of you have sent me your thoughts (or someone's thoughts who
resonated with you) as we look at the aftermath of what we thought was the
little candidate that could. Some allege fraud, others resignation, and
still others tell me "that's it, I'm moving to Canada." (Yeah, as though
Canada wants us.)

Here is how I spent Nov. 3rd.

To my good fortune, I had to be on the road that day, and I had a long way
to go–from Santa Barbara to Rancho Cucamonga (If you aren't from CA, you
may have thought this was a made up place. Nope. It really exists. I've
been there!) 132.5 miles each way according to mapquest–with two stop
offs in between.

I started off the day in tears. Before I left, I looked at the Internet to
see the electoral college map (but didn't check the TV) so when I left
home, in my mind, there had not yet been a concession. My next stage was
denial. Listening to the NPR and Pacifica radio stations that came in and
out of range as I drove, I moved on to anger. I've you studied psychology,
you know that these are some of the classic stages of grief. You may be in
one of these stages now.

But really, the drive did me good. I was able to spend a lot of time
thinking. On the way home, I remembered that there was a "Democracy for
America" meeting scheduled at 7pm, and I rolled into town at 6:55, so
instead of going home, I went right to the meeting–(which used to be a
Dean for America group.) Part of the meeting was a conference call with
Howard Dean. It was inspiring! and I would like to share some of the
inspiration that came with it.

For half an hour I listened to people whine about how depressed they were.
This depressed me even more. Plus, I was struck at how MUCH liberals and
progressives like to hear themselves talk. It's as though they massage
their own brains. It's scary when I find myself in a group of people
amongst whom I am the laconic one (just look at the length of this email)
When it was my turn to talk, I decided to do something a little different
and to try to find some good in the outcome. How is that possible, you
say?

Well–I worked hard on this campaign. I walked a lot of steps (while 7-8
months pregnant), made a lot of phone calls, attended a lot of meetings,
spent more money than I intended, and sat for hours watching people
vote…and it would be easy to say it was all for nothing.
But it wasn't.
At the meeting last night, I saw four people whom I have genuinely come to
like and respect. There are at least two others with whom I've worked that
I am now proud to know. (I met a lot of kooks, too–but in a way, that's
good for the soul, too). I had the unique privilege of seeing a houseful
of first time voters, my neighbors, 18 year old boys and first year college
students, whom I had registered to vote all come together to vote. I got
to learn how the ballot box works, and see the dedication and hard work of
the precinct workers who arrived at the polling place before 6 AM and who
worked diligently until 9 PM to be sure that the voting was fair, orderly,
and legal (and it was.) Imagine the workers in Ohio who worked from 6 AM
until 4 AM the following morning!

I got to know and talk to many of my neighbors. I saw housing conditions
DOWN THE STREET from my home which should not exist. I saw young children
interpreting my questions for their parents who didn't trust their own
English.

Furthermore, I cared about politics again. And so do many, many other
people. A German professor at the local university told me that for the
first time in the 15 years he has been teaching, the majority of his
students are informed and educated about the civics and politics of their
own country. I have to say, it has been some time since I have cared so
deeply and been so involved in my country–and quite frankly, it makes me
feel like a teenager again (and not just because a few months ago I had to
tell my mother that I'm pregnant!) Yes, I remember how scared I was to go
to sleep at night because I was convinced that Ronald Reagan was going to
do something truly horrible that would result in full scale nuclear war and
the end of the world. But I also remember caring DEEPLY about this country
and my involvement in charting its course. Yes, it was 12 long years of
that administration, in a way, but some wonderful things came out of that
too. For me personally, I find it hard to imagine that I would have
decided to study Russian and go to Russia to prove that it was not "The
Evil Empire" had Reagan not made that bone-headed statement. And you all
know that if I hadn't gone to Russia, I would never have met my husband of
over 12 years and the father of my baby. I also would doubtfully have been
nearly so informed about government, politics, and science as I am. I may
never have heard the stories of my father's own struggles with the draft
board in the Vietnam era.

Many of us are upset about the "moral values" question on the exit polls.
Well, I don't think we should be. It was lousy research. What are moral
values? And who is going to say "No. I think Moral Values stink." Unless
you define moral values the question is invalid. To me, moral values are
tolerance, care for your neighbor, the poor, and the disenfranchised.
Moral values are being responsible with your resources, whether they are
financial, environmental, or human. Moral values are about honesty and
care in facts and decisions; education of self and others. Last time I
checked, these were all Christian moral values too. And yes, they are
VITALLY important to me, and I'm not letting anyone else hijack them and
take them from me just because I didn't vote for Bush.

As Howard Dean said in the conference call last night. It isn't over. We
need to take a rest–a week, a month, whatever you need to get back in
touch with the feelings that motivated you before the election, and start
again. There were some victories Tuesday night–just a few–but enough for
us to learn from. The largest county in conservative Utah elected a
progressive mayor. Several democratic governors were elected. Barack
Obama is an inspiration to us all! Locally, we won a tough race to put our
candidate, Pedro Nava, in the state assembly and stopped Arnold's plan to
turn the California State Assembly republican, and we got the leader of our
Democracy for America group elected to the school board. She had never run
for office or even considered it before. A democratic woman in Long Beach,
CA took over a "safe" republican seat.

Howard Dean also reminded us that the republicans started planning this
election (in a sense) nearly 40 years ago. (He called it their 40 years in
the desert, to swipe some of their own rhetoric.) They started twenty
years ago by getting local candidates elected so that they could build the
experience necessary to run in THIS very election. We need to do the same.
Look at your city and county councils. Who needs to go? Who needs to be
supported and encouraged to run for higher office? In two years, we have
the possibility of taking back some of those Congressional seats. Nancy
Pelosi pointed out that the odds were against us this time. The democrats
had to protect too many seats of retirees. In two years, there are 30
republican seats that are no longer safe and will be "up" for grabs.
That's just two years away…and think about how time flies. It wasn't
THAT long ago that we were protesting the uncounted ballots in Florida.
And there doesn't yet appear to be an heir apparent for the republican
presidential nomination for 2008, but we have so many wonderful
possibilities: Obama to name one. Edwards, H. Clinton, and a number of
other folks. Yes, there may be some losses in the Supreme Court–but if
you try to wear the other guy's shoes for a moment (liberals are supposed
to be good at this–give it a try) if you staunchly believe that Roe v.
Wade was a mistake, you've been trying to undo this since the 1970s. If it
can be undone one way, it can be 'redone.' And STATE constitutions, with
some of the newly intolerant amendments are surprisingly easy to change.
It might take time, and bad things might happen in the interim, and that
would be shameful. But democracy is about give and take, winning and
losing. We are on a down cycle now, but that is often when a movement
recharges its batteries and gets back in touch with its purpose (I don't
know about you, but I was politically lazy all through the 90s. Well, I'm
back baby!) (Dean's Democracy for America group is a great
organization–and the only one of the many lists I've been on for the past
year that I plan to stick with. I REALLY recommend you read the speech
posted on his site on Nov. 4th: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/).

Yes, some horrible things may be in the offing for the next four years, but
they have gotten bad before. It seems to happen just about every 15-20
years or so. There may be some wonderful opportunities too. And all in
all, this country is a pretty great place to live, and is certainly worth
digging in your heels and fighting for (don't LET them hijack patriotism
either.) Here are some of the phrases I heard on the commentary on the
radio yesterday that I found uplifting:

"There will always be revolutionaries"
"Don't mourn, organize."
"The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice." (MLK Jr. as
quoted by Barack Obama)
"Si se puede!" "Yes, we can!"

–Joann Kozyrev