Okay, so it looks like Kerry is going to be the candidate. He wasn't my first, second or third pick, but he's still good enough. He'll put a Democratic administration in charge, at least, which will be better than another four years of Republicans.
However, I think that the revolution that the Dean campaign started isn't over yet. The Democratic party is still badly divided and mostly run by corrupt career politicians, beholden to the same cycle of lobbyists donating to politicians for contracts, perks, subsidies and tax rebates, and politicians leaving office for fat pay days from those same lobbyists.
Dean's campaign offered a way out and it largely failed not because of message or technique but because of the candidate and the inability of Joe Trippi to find a way to turn all the energy into victories. I don't blame Trippi because he was doing something that was brand new, breaking ground every day-- he would have had to have been very lucky to get everything right the first time around.
Still-- the internet is only getting more powerful and more pervasive, and the essential platform of the Dean campaign (social liberalism, fiscal conservatism-- a new progressivism) will only become more appealing and needed as the situation in America gets worse.
What we should be doing as soon as the campaign is over is to start looking at candidates who we can conceivably support and who have a resume strong enough to be taken seriously for a run in 2008 -- Republican OR Democrat!
This year, we only had a chance to influence one primary-- in 2008, we could have a chance to influence both, particularly if Bush is re-elected (god forbid). We should look for the moderate seeds in the GOP and try to nurture them if we can.
There's nothing essentially evil about conservatism or the Republican party. There are honest people over there. We should do our best to support them and make sure that the GOP does as much soul-searching as we've forced the Democrats to do this year.