On this post-election Wednesday night, we in the newsroom find ourselves much like the country this Tuesday: divided.

Some of us wanted this column to be a black box to symbolize our collective loss for words in the wake of Bush’s victory. And as a group of Macalester students block off Grand Avenue tonight in protest (although their purpose seems uncertain), some of us support any efforts that disrupt the machinery running our country, including the smooth flow of St. Paul’s evening traffic. However, others are disturbed by the incident, finding it a pointless and self-serving gesture that makes all of us look juvenile and misdirects our anger.

Such local protesting is a necessary and useful means to channel our emotions. At the same time, direct actions next to the Campus Center will not change the political reality that we now face. We have no choice but to try and frame the big picture, and determine why the Democrats couldn’t close the gap despite Bush’s terrible record and stunning incompetence. Unlike 2000, when much of our anger was justifiably directed at a corrupted electoral process, we must face the harsh reality that the candidate many of us believed in simply failed to win, and that the incumbent we’ve distrusted for four years finally earned the mandate he’s acted on since day one.

One political science professor argued in class today that we academic elites at Macalester are trapped in a double bind. While we pride ourselves on postmodern values of moral relativity and a rejection of universal truths, we also dismiss religious American opinions as backward fundamentalism. Our refusal to take such powerful ideologies seriously can only damage our ability to understand and ultimately contend such views.

The Democrats and their progressive agenda will get nowhere until they can bridge the gigantic chasm that now lies between the religious and the secular in this country. In this election, people voted against their own economic interests because Democrats backed away from the opportunity to embrace the fight for civil rights and came out looking morally vacant. While it seems incredible that a president who has caused 100,000 Iraqis and over 1,000 U.S. soldiers to die in a Mesopotamian nightmare was able to frame himself as a moral leader, the Kerry campaign did a spectacular job in failing to articulate the moral outrage of not millions, but billions all around the world.

At an institution dedicated to internationalism and multiculturalism, we must now begin all over in articulating how to defeat a government that perpetuates chaos and inequality here and abroad. We must ask ourselves how the Democratic Party can start to actually participate in political and social progress instead of merely nipping at the heels of that vast apparatus of manipulation known as Karl Rove.

Regardless of what we think about this mess, we cannot deny today’s overwhelming feelings of grief, sadness and disillusionment. We can stand up and scream, we can cry in each other’s arms, but ultimately we must find constructive strategies to move forward.