I’ll ignore the ugly stuff out there for a minute and savor the fact that the most important legislation in my lifetime has passed. It should be crystal-clear to everyone that the two political parties aren’t quite the same. Elections do matter. If you voted for Obama, and you believe that healthcare should be more of a right than a privilege, you can feel like your vote mattered. And if you’re a Republican, and you believe that government shouldn’t play a role in ensuring access to healthcare, you can be quite confident that your vote counted, too, since every Republican in the House of Representatives voted against the reform bill. Fortunately for Democrats, they have a sizable majority, because they did well in two straight elections. Elections do matter. And Barack Obama, for all of the blame he deserves for ceding the debate for the better part of year, deserves enormous credit for rallying his diverse party to pass a flawed, but monumental piece of legislation.