The poet Don Marquis once wrote, "An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it." Marquis was the creator of archy, a philosophical cockroach who seems as apt as any metaphor for the recently completed election.

Marquis’ point is a good one, because George W. Bush must now find a way to lead a collection of citizens who have spent more than a month pointing out flaws in our system of choosing a leader. He can be held responsible for some of the recent problems, if we can presume that he exercised any measure of authority in his campaign. Many others, though, were caused not by political operatives with malign intent, but by years of applying patches to a system that was designed in a much simpler time.

This holiday season, the phrase "It’s time to put the election behind us and move on" is second only to "Merry Christmas." It’s a cheery sentiment, but it’s not a sound idea. The main accomplishment of this election may have been to identify problems that we can now address, not in a frenzied few days before an election and the deadline to announce a result, but in a thoughtful and systematic manner.

Philosophy must come first. Most of us would say we believe in the right of Americans to vote; how committed are we to ensuring that they can? Its apparent that in some parts of this country, we still need to articulate very clearly our commitment to civil rights.

Then come the details. How can we combine legislation, technology and common sense so that everyone who is legally qualified to vote can do so conveniently and effectively. (Americans are no longer going to believe there’s much point in going through the motions if the votes aren’t going to count in the end.) We can’t assume that such a mess will never happen again; rather, we should assume that it’s been happening undetected in local elections all over the country.

That’s only half the picture. The other half is that we do have a new president, handicapped though he may be, and we also have some governing that needs to be done. Holding the GOP responsible for every verbal blunder Bush is likely to make over the next four years isn’t going to be very productive. It won’t get him removed from office — we’ve learned just how difficult it is to get rid of a president, after all — but it may limit lawmakers who are trying to make legitimate progress. The same is true for holding Democrats responsible for Al Gore’s reluctance to concede the election. We don’t need four years of retributive pettiness.