Thanks to the wonderful immediacy of social media, I watched the panic of conservative Republican voters rise as election returns started pouring in last night.

By the time I went to bed, little doubt remained. Barack Obama would spend another four years as the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And mild unease had grown into full-fledged despondency.

As Wednesday unfolded, conservatives and Republicans tried to figure out what went wrong. They analyzed polling data, rehashed the campaign and pointed fingers. They also struggled to figure out what to do next. After all, they just lost “the most important election of our lifetime.” With all of their eggs riding in the Mitt Romney basket, many now seem at a complete loss. In fact, the entire conservative movement seems veiled in a dark blanket of discouragement.

Obama supporters were relieved. Disaster averted!

But here at the Tenth Amendment Center, we are not despondent, dismayed or even discouraged. And we are not at a loss as to what to do next.

We plan to keep right on doing what been doing since 2006: insisting on adherence to the Constitution, every issue, every time, no exceptions and no excuses.

And we see reason for optimism.

Since the beginning of the primary campaign season, we’ve argued that the winner on Nov. 6 would make little difference in the big scheme of things. Yes, another four years of Barack Obama guarantees we will have to endure another four years of growing government, spiraling debt, continued war, eroding civil liberties and expansion of federal power.

But let’s be realistic. We would have had the same under a Mitt Romney reign.

Washington D.C. will never solve America’s problems. Washington D.C. is America’s problem.

But we will  find the solutions at the state and local level.

You see, it requires power to take on power. And we have a power source close at hand – our state legislatures, our governors and our county sheriffs. They have the power and the authority to block implementation of unconstitutional federal acts.

We don’t need to wait on politicians in D.C. to repeal Obamacare. We don’t need federal judges to rule against it. They won’t do it. We just need people at the state level to stand up and say, “No!!” and then refuse to implement this garbage.

We don’t need to wait on politicians in D.C. to “let” us grow a plant in our own back yards. We don’t need federal judges to grant us permission. They won’t do it. We just need people at the state level to tell the feds, “No!! Take your unconstitutional drug war and stick it where the sun don’t shine!”

And we don’t need to beg politicians in D.C. not to indefinitely detain our fellow citizens. We don’t need federal judges to smack the fed’s hands. They won’t do it. We need people at the state level to look the feds in the eye and tell them, “No!! We will not let you detain people in our state. We will not cooperate!”

The vote the bums out strategy failed miserably. And admit it, if Romney had won, you would have been calling him a bum within months. But the nullification path offers hope. In fact, this election proves that when it comes down to it, the people of the states ARE willing to stand up.

Voters in six states told the feds to go pound sand yesterday. Alabama, Montana, and Wyoming all passed measures guaranteeing health care freedom, despite federal mandates in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Massachusetts voters defied federal law and approved a measure to legalize marijuana for medicinal use. And in Washington and Colorado, they took it a step further, decriminalizing pot completely.

Here at the Tenth Amendment Center, we’ve pushed this strategy for more than six years. We pushed it when George W. Bush was president. We kept pushing it during Obama’s first term. We’ll continue to push it for the next four years. And we will keep right on pushing it after a new sharp-dressed man moves into the White House in 2016.

That’s what we do.

And we do what we do because we firmly root ourselves in constitutional principles. We believe the framers meant it when they said that the federal government was limited, with few and defined powers, and that all other powers were to remain with the states and the people.

Over the last 100 years or more, politicians in D.C. stole our powers.

We the people of the states will take them back!

Mike Maharrey