Joshua Foust:

Our lack of political tolerance of risk is arguably the worst instinct in American politics ... We, as a country, punish those politicians who urge restraint, and we reward those who expand the powers of the state. We should not be surprised at what we get. Despite the supposedly American dislike of authority, the last decade we have demonstrated that we're rather fine with expansive authority, and we'll defend it at the ballot box.

William H. Simon:

Many people have lost faith in the capacity of government to solve the problems they care about.

The Electoral Victor:

I blame you. You started it with your whingeing. I evolved to meet the demand. If I can say nothing else of a truthful kind, I can say this – what I have done, you did to me.

[So] relax and be comfortable again. I'm not going to worry you with any fancy stuff. I have my limitations, but so have you. That's why I'm here. You have elected yourselves, you see, and you can't get a more fair dinkum democratic outcome than that.

Abigail Zuger:

As an expert in the new science of outlook, Dr. Hilary Tindle offers precise technical definitions of optimism and pessimism, supplies a short validated questionnaire for readers to rate their own tendencies, and then provides "seven steps of attitudinal change" for those who come up short. These steps will probably be especially useful for individuals brimming over with a particularly bad quality known as "cynical hostility," which she has found to be associated with a 16 percent elevation in mortality over eight years.

Some of us are, sadly, too far gone to view this statistic with anything but cynicism and hostility, but those who can still save themselves may be well advised to do so.