They're intentionally kept that way by those who make it their business to break our spirits. I'm certain that we suffer an infiltration of such people.
Indeed!
There are upsides:
1. It appears Mark Obenshain has the upper hand for the election to the second-most powerful position in the state, the AG. The counting appears to be complete and he's still standing, with a 681-vote lead.... which has been the case since last night.
2. The House of Delegates, now even more conservative, will be riding herd on McAuliffe from Day One, and all but the most innocuous aspects Fast Terry's agenda are dead in the water, gun control and Medicaid expansion among them.
3. After the massive (by some estimates 10-1) advantage in media advertising for the dems, after that massive infusion of Bloomberg million$, after all the demonization of Cuccinelli and the rest of the ticket... all they got was what amounts to a hollow 2.5% win for McAuliffe.
In summation, with the strong possibility of a conservative AG and a neutered McAuliffe, the takeaway is that national dems are shaking in their knickers about next year. They were expecting a massive blowout and a vindication of Obamacare... they didn't get it. And now it all shifts to 2014.