With  only hours before 2012 ends and 2013 begins, the full outcome of  Election 2012 has now been determined. What has become clear on this  last day of the year is that the American people are the real losers.

With  Americans choosing to keep government as divided and splintered as it  is with ideologues digging in on both extremes of the political  spectrum, the people of the US of A have sealed their own economic fate  for the coming year. While a deal is being bandied about to try and keep  the nation's financial ship from sinking in the sea of red ink all  around us, it is now apparent that the waterfall known as the fiscal  cliff will find that ship going over the edge.

Sure  there is still time to keep the worst from happening and ways to stave  off the full effects of the inaction by members of Congress and the  inability of the White House to redirect the course by seizing control  of the helm, but there will still be fallout and still be those who will  feel the pangs of having dived into the murk below. Dynamics change and  as 2013 begins those dynamics in Congress change as well. The divide  between Republicans and Democrats will only grow rather than bring the  parties closer together. There will be no desire by either side to find  the calm and serenity of a port though the nation is being lambasted by a  fiscal storm.

Yes, the result of Election 2012 is now clear and the American people, the voters, are the clear losers.

From  the Cornfield, while I try to find some sliver of optimism in the midst  of this dark night, I am starting to feel a sense of resolution that  the government we have is the government we voted to keep. We, the  nation, will survive, but times will become leaner before we once more  can lay any claim to being the land of milk and honey.