This is a check we ought to cash … thinking long and hard about where we are.

“The voters reminded us yet again that the other side is not going away. We have to dispense with the fantasy that after the next miracle election our side will suddenly get everything it wants. We have to live with one another.

The key is loosening the grip the culture war has had on our politics and governance. Let’s fight our moral difference with books, sermons, movies and marches, not with political coercion.”

What the Voters are Trying to Tell Us (David Brooks, NYT)