Brendan Nyhan

Andrew S. Rappaport says it will kill the claim of a natural Democratic majority:

Continuing to wallow in nostalgia and trying to reassemble the New Deal coalition relegates Democrats to long-term minority status. “If there’s a silver lining [in Kerry’s defeat], it is that it’s going to eliminate the ability [of Democrats] to argue that we have a natural majority on our side,” says California venture capitalist Andrew S. Rappaport, a leading funder of Democratic causes. “We don’t. It’s over.”

Will Saletan suggests Democrats have the opportunity to re-think the party’s positions and message:

One silver lining in last night’s debacle is that for another 24 hours or so, you might be open to rethinking what your party stands for. So, while I have your attention, here’s an idea.

Parental handouts! From the Columbia Spectator:

Blau, however, found a silver lining in Kerry’s loss and a possible consolation for employment woes. “If my dad gets to keep the tax cut maybe he’ll give me more money,” he said. “I was going for anything.”

Music that’s less political! From the Houston Chronicle:

Here’s a musical silver lining. With the campaign out of the way, the music of Bruce Springsteen and Sammy Kershaw may lose some of its divisive political significance and can safely be downloaded onto your MP3 player without risking accusations of partisanship or causing your iPod to self-destruct.

Chris Suellentrop on Slate — at least the Electoral College wasn’t as bad as the popular vote!

The silver lining for the minority party is that the Democrats may have a slight edge in the Electoral College. Although he lost the popular vote by more than 3.5 million (a landslide in a 50-50 nation), Kerry lost the presidency by a much smaller amount: fewer than 140,000 votes in Ohio.

In the Gadflyer, Sean Aday points to the alleged Republican “problems” of unified control of the federal government and an increased House majority. By this logic, the GOP would be screwed if there were no Democrats in Congress. Think of all the seats they’d have to defend! There’d be no one else to blame for their mistakes!

Not only did Bush only barely achieve a majority, performing at virtually exactly the level expected of an incumbent seeking re-election, but at 49 percent he holds the distinction of having the highest percentage of votes cast against a sitting President in history. We may no longer be precisely a 49 percent nation, but there is still 49 percent who didn’t support Bush.

…Which leads to another silver lining: The Midterms. Republicans are going to have to defend a lot of House seats in 2006, and although Bush defied history by not losing seats in the 2002 midterms (in part because he had not had any coattails to speak of in 2000 and thus there weren’t the usual batch of weak first-termers running), can he really pull that off again? Democrats’ complicity in setting up safe districts for incumbents during the reapportionment that followed the 2000 census will help the GOP stem their losses, but chances are good for Democrats picking up many seats, possibly even regaining control of the House.

…The problem for Republicans is that they now have sole possession of these problems, to say nothing of whatever other policy disasters they have up their sleeves in the coming months and years.

Matthew Yglesias takes a shot:

The joy of it being so far from the next election is that one can feel free to say what one means without undue worry about its electoral consequences. I wouldn’t advise politicians to start talking like this, but for liberal journalists it’s gonna be eighteen sweet months of elitist Dixie-bashing. Or at least it should be. See also Julian Sanchez. One of the silver linings in the dark cloud of Bushism is that I get to continue to agree about stuff with all my libertarian friends. Kerry’s health plan might have put an end to all that.

There must be one somewhere! Here’s Kos (via Belgravia Dispatch):

The big silver lining, and it’s significant, is that Kerry won’t be tarred for cleaning up Bush’s mess. Had Kerry gotten us out of Iraq, he would’ve been blamed for “losing the war”. Now Bush will ineptly lose it for himself. Kerry would’ve been forced to make sense of a mess of a budget. Now Bush will be responsible for his own half-trillion dollar deficits.

From The Hill:

But sources in the Secret Service told The Hill that Bush was wearing a bulletproof vest, as he does most of the time when appearing in public. The president’s handlers did not want to admit as much during the campaign, for fear of disclosing information related to his personal security while he was on the campaign trail.

This will be disappointing to the tinfoil hat brigade.

Grover Norquist is flagged by the Moose sharing this piece of post-election wisdom:

Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with the Republicans. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don’t go around peeing on the furniture and such.

Let the healing begin…