I would not have been surprised if either Obama or McCain won. We now know Obama has won. But I am not celebrating tonight. I have mixed feelings. I know energetically that Obama is not a sincere man, and I have a heavy heart that something bad will come out of his presidency.

In the short run, though, I think his win is positive in that it buoys the spirits of African-Americans, and it deflates the intense anti-Bush/anti-Republican hate and anger that has festered among the left for a long time. I can't even imagine how people would have freaked out had McCain won. The most rabid anti-Bush people would never give him a chance, and they would spend another four years protesting and hollering and hanging him in effigy.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the hating.

So for McCain's sake, I'm kind of glad he doesn't have to put up with that.

For our nation to heal, however, we must get beyond partisan politics and stop elevating one side at the expense of the other. The incredible arrogance and anger that has surfaced from the left this election does not come from a higher place of love, tolerance, or peace. We should not push forward progressive policies to the point that we shun or dismiss the concerns of more conservative Americans, who simply have a different philosophy of life.

Therefore, I will encourage my liberal friends reading this to try not to gloat. Be tolerant. You now have a chance, with a Democratic president and a Democratic congress, to put your money where your mouth is and prove that somehow you are better than the "evil" Republicans. Maybe the first place to begin would be to start acting like adults and start listening to the other side, rather than condemning or demeaning people who disagree with you on ideology.

I suspect, though, that a full Democratic majority will not be the instant panacea everyone hopes it will be. You may, in fact, find out that Democrats aren't magically superior to Republicans but are also flawed human beings who don't always get everything right. Perhaps when that realization occurs, you might consider that maybe you were a little too harsh on people who just happened to have an R next to their name.

I am personally beyond party now - and I hope that once the hoopla over Obama's inauguration dies down, Americans can release their anger against Bush and start to move forward. Unfortunately, people who get caught up hating an "enemy" often just transfer that hate somewhere else when the enemy is defeated. Maybe a better idea would be to look inside your own heart and ask why you hated so much in the first place. Otherwise, the pendulum will swing and we'll be right back where we started, only with the right side kicking out the left in a fit of anger.