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Tell you the truth, I don't really want to tell you about them, either. Unfortunately, the universe is notoriously indifferent to individual people's wants, so I guess that we're all going to have to deal with it.
Or, as an almost-wise man once noted, "You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake."
So, let's get started:
1. You are not going to get everything that you want out of the 112th Congress. This is pretty much true by definition: and it's actually not so bad, because what you want now is probably more than what you wanted (and reasonably expected) in, say, January of 2009. Back then we were hoping to keep the Republican defections to Democratic legislative idiocies down to no more than thirty or so and maybe get a couple of dozen House seats back in the midterm... amazing what two years can bring, yes? But you still will be disappointed in something that happens in the next Congress. Accept that it's going to occur. Less of a shock that way.
2. There will be people who will exploit your reaction to #1, mostly because they know that they can. Not all of them will be Democrats (although the Left would just love to see the GOP have a civil war right now). There are a number of groups and movements ostensibly on the Right's side that will be happy to encourage your feelings of betrayal and outrage for the ultimate benefit of their own agenda. And one of the problems with holding a grievance for too long is that eventually you can't stop holding it. Example A: ...pick any special interest group in the Democratic party, really. They've all let their faces freeze like that.
3. You've already done the easy part. You voted. You marched. You spoke truth to power (no, really, that's what it's supposed to look like). Huzzah. Now comes the hard part: keeping informed, keeping others informed, keeping active in local and state politics, keeping others active in local and state politics, figuring out how to get the best deal possible, figuring out how to get over not getting everything that you want, and - most importantly! - figuring out how not to let any negative emotions that you might have affect others. You know: Grown-up stuff.
4. If anybody was going to take up the slack for you, they would have arrived already. If you want assistance, get some. If you want a replacement, train one. If you want reinforcements, recruit them. If you're bad at doing any or all of that, go get somebody who isn't. If you're finding any or all of that hard, suck it up. Seriously, I've written this before, and this cannot be addressed enough: there is not going to be any cavalry coming over the hill to save us all. We're the cavalry. Luckily, we're perfectly capable of saving ourselves.
5. None of the above is a valid reason for giving up. Are you upset because of something that happened that would be covered by #1 through #4? Get over it. That doesn't mean 'accept it:' that means 'fix the problem and get on with your life.' And don't whine about it, either--leave that luxury to our political opponents. Besides, what do you have to really whine about, anyway? Heck, compared to your grandparents you have it easy: you have access to interior plumbing, weather satellites, reliable electricity, and penicillin.
No pressure, though. We're only talking about helping to keep the country from sliding off of the beam, after all.
