Today we lost an election, but the truth of our ideals have not been defeated.

I posted this on my facebook page.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -- Matthew 6:34 (NIV) The people have spoken. It is not the first time I disagree, but I recall how glad I was when Bush won and it is good to feel a sting of loss. We need to remember, though, that a losing does not have to mean we are defeated. Our political history is one of ups and downs. Some years we do a good job of selling our ideals, other years other circumstances take precedence. Liberals never are defeated. As a former one, we tried for the incremental, and when that failed, we got back up and tried again. We know that a wall is built or torn down one brick at a time. Conservatives, however, have a flaw - we tend to be all or nothing at all people. We see ourselves as trying to hold the wall together instead of building (or removing) one. We tend to give up. Wilberforce and John Q. Adams stood against slavery for all their lives. Wilberforce saw the fruit of that effort, Adams did not, but both men were wall-builders. They saw victory even in their defeats because, like Edison, they learned what did not work. We are at war with a set of ideals that leads to destruction. History shows that when a society becomes morally and economically liberal, it will soon fail - Greece, Rome, USSR - all collapse inward first. We must take this battle one step at a time. Our arguments are valid and compelling but we need to learn to speak them rather than shout them, to convince rather than overwhelm, to help to understand rather than impose. To trust the power and plan of God rather than the strength and wisdom of any man. Today we lost an election, but the truth of our ideals have not been defeated.