The post-mortem on Tuesdays national mid-term elections is one big blame-game for conservatives many of them evangelicals, convinced that Republicans betrayed true conservative values and paid the price at the polls.The historic sea change, I believe, had to do with an obvious set of forces: A message of President Bush that the Iraqi war was a mistake and a fiasco that needs fresh and effective approaches to bring finality; the endless litany of corruption; wanton spending on the war and its profiteering for corporate friends; Katrina failures; cynicism about fear-raising and validity of terror threats; lack of congressional oversight of the executive branch; and a pure fatigue from the 12-year episode of Republican rule. And certainly we see that a party that had billed itself as paragons of family values and ethics woefully failed to create a better and kinder society. And dont underestimate the human desire for change. American politics have a way of making corrections when things seem to go extreme. Give people credit for giving constituencies some time to try their experiments in public policy-making. Para-church organizations right and left were dissecting results from Tuesday and voicing new directions. The Institute on Religion and Democracy, which describes itself as an alliance of Christians reforming churches social witness in accord with biblical and historic witness, lauded voters in seven states Arizona not among them for protecting marriage in ballot measures. It chastised major denominations, however, for being silent in the campaign. Methodist leaders were blamed for silence even though the church officially supports laws in civil society that define marriage as one man and one woman. Bloody Tuesday Pro-Life Measures, Candidates Lose Big was the headline on a press release from Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. America has voted and the bloody results have placed the most vulnerable among us, the pre-born, in the crosshairs for continued extermination, he said. But he said he was hopeful that those who respect life will eventually regain control of our governmental institutions. The vote was described as only a speed bump in the road, and our cause is advancing. Rabbi Michael Lerner of the progressive Tikkun Community and magazine was ecstatic that the election outcome could boost what he calls the religious left. He said that for two decades, the religious right was able to convince Americans that the great ethical issues were about sexuality and abortion. In this election, voters in many states repudiated local initiatives sponsored by the right. His zinger was this, If pundits try to convince you that the ethical issues folks lost, tell them that Americans are growing more sophisticated about what IS an ethical issue. Things like the death tolls in Iraq where the defenseless and innocent die, fair wages and protecting the planets ecology. Just days before, the Democrats were characterized as wimpy politicians without backbones, plans or political killer instincts. Then with such convincingly national victories, the onus seems off. Lerner has optimism and hope that American can heal and transform the world still. He celebrates the great value of American democracy, with all its limitations, for giving an opportunity for that goodness in people to shine through all the deceptions and all the distortions. Hope if back in America.

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