Like a lot of people around here, I was feeling very good when I checked Daily Kos for the last time on election morning and headed for my post at local Dem HQ. Though I knew my state would go for Bush, I felt confident that Kerry would prevail, and that the next day's story of victory would be about how hard we had all worked and how many new people had become energized and participated by voting in astonishing numbers. Before I went off to watch the returns, I wrote an e-mail to some friends saying that whatever the results of the election, the campaign had been an incredible experience, and that we as a nation were better for having become engaged so profoundly. Obviously, these feelings are what make our defeat so hard to take. But it gets worse when you discover that the positive reasons we all gave so much of ourselves this year, and remained so united, bear no resemblance to the vitriol being spewed BY THE PEOPLE WHOSE SIDE WON.