I went to the Unitarian church near my house in Adams Morgan today to hear Seymour Hersh speak as part of a Politics and Prose bookstore event.

Hersh discussed Iraq--why we were there, what we were doing, and what comes next. He also spoke frankly about the what-if that no one is supposed to mention--what if on November 3, we wake up to the news of another four years with President George Bush? What about two more years of a Republican-controlled Congress? What do we do then?

Right now, most online political action is election-oriented. Disseminating information, recruiting volunteers, fundraising for campaigns--this is as it should be. But we must not forget that this amount and intensity of action requires enormous resources, both financial and human. Thousands of paid organizers are on the ground and in headquarters at campaigns and non-profits, composing emails and maintaining databases and designing flyers. For the next forty-two days, it's all about the top-down and the right-now. But after November, much of these resources will disappear. The organizers will go on to grad school and investment banking and teaching, the money will stop flowing, and we'll be back where many of us were a year ago during the primary season--with only ourselves.

Ourselves--people with "real jobs" and no money to buy complicated database products and catchy t-shirts. Ourselves--people who need to create their own management structure and don't report their numbers to anyone.

But this time, the stakes will be higher. We'll have to keep fighting, of course, for our candidates--for special elections and school boards and long-term planning for Congress and state senate and even the 2008 election. But at the same time, it is our duty as citizens to deal with with how the administration's actions affect our country and our community.

More and more people will lose health insurance. Can we use the internet to connect them with non-profit providers? After-school programs will be cut. Instead of meeting up to support a candidate, can we meet up to watch our neighbors' children while they go to work? If George Bush wins on November 2, millions of Americans' lives will get much harder over the next four years. We need to start seriously thinking about how to channel the tools we've built and the energy we've created into keeping our country afloat.