Only a few short weeks have passed since Election Day, but it already feels like a lifetime ago. No longer are voters in swing states subjected to nonstop political ads, and the evening news is once again covering a host of national and international issues instead of just wall-to-wall coverage of the presidential campaign. But, Election Day was as much a starting line as it was an end point. Now is the time to reflect back on the 2012 election and look toward what’s to come in 2013.

With Thanksgiving just a week away and the movie “Lincoln” opening in theaters tomorrow, we might do well to remember that the first Thanksgiving was proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln at a time when our country was embroiled in civil war over whether all Americans were really created equal.