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A week after the election there are a few things that the United States knows for sure. The Democrats generally got crushed, the country is still centrist, and President Obama will likely be re-elected in 2012.

The Democrats got crushed in the House. Their defeat was historic as they lost more than 60 seats in the House of Representatives, which hasn’t happened since President Truman was in the White House in the late 1940s.

They generally seem to have lost to Tea Partiers and far-right conservatives, and yet the Democrats managed to keep the Senate because it appears that many states seemed unwilling to vote for “extreme” candidates, which is exactly why voters should demand an end to Gerrymandering (redistricting to create “safe” areas for conservatives and liberals so that candidates don’t have to appeal to a moderate base to win).

Despite the obvious districting problems in this country, the fact that the Democrats maintained the Senate does show that the country is trying to maintain itself in the center and that the election was not a Conservative mandate.

However, Congressional Republicans seem to have gotten the wrong message as they came out later this week and outlined their strategy over the next two years, which focused primarily on ensuring that President Obama is not re-elected.

Despite Obama’s current unpopularity, it seems more likely that most Americans voted against Democrats not necessarily because of his policy, but because of the way the policies were enacted.

Over the past two years, congressional liberals refused to work with conservatives, which created a long, frustrating stalemate to a country with so many systemic problems.

People also appear to be fed up with the Democrat’s price tag as they have done little to try and solve the budget crisis.

However, this country did not put Republicans into power in the House to create yet more divides and try and score more political points. They gave them the power so that they might work with Democrats in fixing the financial crises of this country.

Despite the president’s compromising tone, that reality seems unlikely to happen over the next couple years, although that tone will likely help him get re-elected in 2012 where he is still leading Sarah Palin in straw polls.

Conservatives ought to cheer for now, but if the Republicans keep up their current political pouting than they will find themselves riding the bench again in 2012.