Last Tuesday, after years of being frightened into believing the comforting stories woven by ideologues, the American people found the strength to recognize this truth.
That recognition, more than any other factor, explains the Democrats' overwhelming victory in the midterm elections.
In the fearful aftermath of Sept. 11, our country naturally looked to its leaders for clear answers. Together, we groped around in the dark for some semblance of certainty.
Yet, the truth was, and still is, that there had never been certainty and there never would be.
Rather than accepting their role as true leaders and bearing this news, the Bush administration and its Republican followers comforted the country with lies. And so an era of pleasant untruths began.
The cheerful illusions began with our security. We were told that the triumph of "good" over "evil" was inevitable. We believed that attacking the unrighteous would make us righteous in the eyes of the oppressed throughout the world.
We thought that we would be welcomed as liberators in Iraq and hailed as champions of justice elsewhere.
These illusions then progressed into the economy. Our leaders told us that we did not have to sacrifice to strengthen the economy.
They told us that all the economy required of us was that we pay less in taxes. They told us that all a stronger economy required of them was to do away with trade restrictions rather than rethinking them and making them stronger.
These cheerful illusions then spread into every facet of political life: Healthier forests with more logging, cleaner air with fewer regulations, better education with less money for public schools, more rights with less privacy.
The country became complacent in its criticism. We chose to believe that the world might be so simple that every decision would leave only winners, with no losers.
Yet, as lies tend to do, these untruths eventually crashed against reality. Good is not winning over evil in Iraq. The war on terror is creating more terrorists than it is doing away with. Our image in most of the world is now one of a schoolyard bully, not a defender of the weak.
The economy of middle class and poor households has stagnated. Schools are no better, health care is still a problem and the environment is worse off than it would have been.
We were faced again with the proposition that there is no easy answer and no certainty in our decisions.
Throughout this recent campaign, the Democrats were attacked for failing to provide a clear alternative and for having no plans of their own.
The message on Tuesday was clear - sometimes we cannot know what will happen; and sometimes that's OK.
It is a part of the human condition that we must always expect the unexpected and respond to new developments with both creativity and humility if we are to move forward. We can never be sure which choice is best; progress is never sure.
What we can choose is how we will meet the challenges that face us. Last week's vote was not a vote for a different plan - it was a vote for a different way of making our plans.
We have asked for our leaders to engage the problems of our era in all of their complexity. We have asked them to recognize that the best choices occur when people are willing to engage in open debate and compromise, and experiment and change courses when presented with new evidence.
The Democrats have promised us a return to these basics. Yet, it is up to us to hold them to this promise by asking for more than different, pleasant illusions.
Taylor Jackson is breathing for the first time in years and wondering what things are like under a two party system, having never experienced it in his adult life. You can send him your thoughts, hopes and ideological misunderstandings at: taylor.jackson@asu.edu.
