Everyone is still flailing on both sides of the aisle trying to figure out what Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts means. Is it a referendum on healthcare? Is it condemnation of Obama? Is it affirmation of America’s love affair with trucks?

It’s likely many things, which means that anyone reading too much into the election is likely to overreact. But there are some key themes the new reality brings to light.

• Democrats in general and Obama in specific can’t sit back and assume the nation is behind them. We are an impatient people with a very short attention span. There needs to be a coherent message coming from the left. A message that resonates both emotionally and intellectually with the electorate. Currently that message is missing. Republicans are defining both sides of the conversation. You were elected to lead. Show some spine.

• Congress needs to recognize that we are fed up with the way business gets done (or not done) there. I can’t recall the time Congress had an approval rating over 30%. We think the legislative branch is fundamentally broken, and nothing happening at the Capitol is dissuading us from that opinion. The back room deals, the pork projects, the palm greasing, the 1000 page bills, the lobbying influence, the rules designed to avoid anyone actually being held accountable for doing anything, it’s all apparent in the light of the 24-hour news cycle. Stop it. Help us, your constituents, or we’ll keep rocking your world at every election.

• Republicans, sit down at the table. Stop focusing on defeating the other party, and look to improve the plight of the people of this nation. You may be in the minority now, but that will change, it always does. The world is not so black and white as your rhetoric would have us believe. Yes, advocate your ideology. But acknowledge that progress still needs to be made during your stay in the minority, and that means compromising for the good of us all.

The Tea Partiers are right. We need to take this country back. But not back from the Socialist Fascist Commies. Back from the corporations and their career politician puppets in both parties. We are supposed to be a government of, by, and for the people. Well clearly that’s not the case anymore. We are mad as hell. We’re not sure what to do about that just yet, so mostly what you’re seeing is random temper tantrums. But keep pushing us and we’ll figure it out. We’ll find a unified voice, because as any good Drill Sargent knows, nothing creates a cohesive team like a common hatred.

Fix it. Do it now. Or you’ll make us angry. You won’t like us when we’re angry.