I predicted to a friend yesterday that Obama would win in a landslide. I have felt that way all Summer. On the morning after, Andrew Sullivan captures my feelings about Romney and right-wing media:

[This election] has revealed that Fox News, Drudge, and the rest have been engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to create an alternative reality and get the rest of us to go along. . . . What was defeated tonight was not just Romney, a hollow cynic, but a whole mountain of mendacity and delusion. That sound you hear is the cognitive dissonance ringing in the ears of ideologues and cynics. Any true conservative longs for that sound, the sound of reality arriving to pierce through fantasy and fanaticism.

I want to share a challenge with my conservative friends: Did you buy into the story that a media conspiracy was twisting the polls? Did you reflexively dismiss bad news during this campaign as media bias? Did you look to Drudge, Fox, Rush, Hannity, Beck, Dinesh D’Souza, et al. to give you the *real* story?

Don’t. They are as blinded by bias and ulterior motives as any in the “mainstream” media. I hope you can see that now.

Like it or not, Obama is the future. Mitt won older people. Obama swept the young. In twenty years, an election like this won’t even be close. Gay marriage is coming. Obamacare is here to stay.

These things are true about America because Americans, especially the rising generations, *want* these things.

The challenge that conservatives face in the coming years—the challenge that you may face this morning—is this: Are you willing to put your political ideals above your political preferences? We say we love liberty. We say we believe in government by the people.

Well, the people have spoken. Barack Obama is the freely, fairly elected president of the United States. Do you believe in government by the people? Then get behind the President. Respect him. Work with him. Regard him as the captain of your team. Because that’s what he is.

If you don’t get behind him in this way—if instead you spend another four years rooting around for birth certificates, or searching for college records, or whispering about his father, and Islam, and conspiracy—I have two things to say to you:

1. You’re not acting like a conservative. You’re acting like a fascist in training. A fascist is a person who rules by force of might, not by due democratic process. Democracy is about compromise and a willingness to work and live together in peace between people who disagree. Fascism is about forcing what you want on people who have no say in the matter. If you refuse to honor and uphold the President because you disagree with him, you are also refusing to honor and uphold the democratic process that made him president. You are revealing a willingness to sacrifice the democratic process—to weaken it, to question it, to disrespect it—for the sake of your own political ends. Beware that road. The short term political gains come at a terrible long-term cost in lost freedom.
   
2. You’re not acting like a Christian. Paul wrote in Romans 13, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. . . . For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. . . . Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”

Paul wrote those words when men like Nero were on the throne. The governing authorities in question were the Roman Emperor and his representatives. Barack Obama is nothing like those men, and America is nothing like Imperial Rome. We owe Barack Obama honor and respect.

So, my conservative friends, please be grateful today. We live in America. We have a freely elected leader today, and we had a say in his choosing. We do not have a dictator who was forced upon us without our input. We had the privilege of voting yesterday, and we continue to have it. In addition, we have an abundance of earthly goods and of liberty in this land. And you know what, believe it or not, if the Bible is true, Barack Obama is God’s gift to you for your good.We have a lot to be thankful for this morning. I encourage you, my conservative friends, to cultivate gratitude.