Finally. At last. After weeks of vicious backbiting, lies and vitriolic rhetoric, the election is over.

Perhaps now we can return to a semblance of civility and get on with the business of pulling our nation out of a recession, solving our health care problems and deciding what to do about illegal immigration. We can put the sneers and accusations behind us and return to normal.

Normal. What’s that? And who won? Aye, there’s the rub.

There should only be one winner in any election: we the people. But, of course, that’s naive. Elections have always been about winners and losers — dating back to the days of Jefferson and Washington. However, those were the days before politics became a fat-filled career and politicians fought to be re-elected forever — before elected government people could enter office with little wealth and become incredibly rich while theoretically living on a government salary. How did that happen? Good question.

George Washington, of course, was the originator of term limits when he refused to go for a third term. That held until Franklin Roosevelt, who won a fourth term and might have gone on even further had he lived. Now we have the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which limits the president to two terms. Long overdue is another amendment for term limits to Congress.

One good thing that did come out of this election was the tea party. Contrary to what the progressives would have you believe, this is not a group of rabble-rousers but is instead regular patriotic Americans who finally had a bellyful and banded together to ruffle the feathers of arrogance.

They did a good job and set the groundwork for an ever-increasing oversight by the rest of us. Thanks to them, we turned out in force. And, if the lines to the booth were long, it is to the credit of the volunteers that the lines moved swiftly.

If the pendulum has swung back toward the right, we still have our work cut out for us. We face two years of presidential vetoes as our narcissistic leader fights tooth and nail for his liberal agenda.

Bill Clinton, when faced with the reality of the demands of the American public, swung back toward the center. I fail to see President Obama moving in that direction. He may pretend to be on our side, but all the evidence of his first two years in office says he is adamantly determined to see that the bloated government rules us. That spells socialism in my book.

Was it a landslide? Harry Reid’s win and the Democratic retention of the Senate says no. Was it a mandate? Here, the answer leans closer to a yes, but it is still a no. What is definite is that this election sent a strong message to our current government that the key word for America is still FREEDOM.

Whenever a small group of partisan politicians tries to place us under its thumb, this sleeping giant stirs and, if this group persists, this sleeping giant stands tall and strong and sends a resounding NO.

This is what the election said: NO. No to the bankrupting of the nation; no to a poorly designed health care bill; no to cap-and-trade; no to rule by a government which is supposed to represent us. The Republicans have been accused of being the party of NO, but it is, in reality, the people who are saying no.

If some are disappointed that the center-right did not take back the Senate, perhaps that is not as bad as it seems. With a Republican House and a Democratic Senate, we now have the checks and balances mandated by our Constitution. And we have spoken in loud and clear terms that our Constitution still reigns in spite of a concerted effort by the administration to defy it and defame it.

America is still free.

Allan Jefferys, a former New York theater critic and newsman, lives in Pinehurst. Contact him at oldjeff@nc.rr.com.