Ho-Hyung Lee and James Bryson Hyatt

Founder and CEO, UBIMS, Inc.

The solution starts with acknowledging domestic manufacturing needs to be the backbone of any sustainable recovery. Experts will say the U.S. doesn't "do" manufacturing anymore. Our economy is all about service, finance, software, and entertainment.

James Campion

Political Analyst, 'The Aquarian Weekly'

Those are the sounds a man makes when he no longer has to run for office. It is powerful, even majestic, if not terrifying. Makes the most fearless among us truly understand the lofty position of the end game. It rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

Barbara Lee

President, Barbara Lee Political Office and Barbara Lee Family Foundation

The 1950s called: They want their stereotypes back. In what feels like a throwback to a bygone era, paternalist politics were alive and well in this election.

Robert Creamer

Political Organizer, Strategist, Author; Partner Democracy Partners

I realize that all of the "wise men" of Washington are clamoring for a bi-partisan solution to fix the nation's deficit. But the plain fact is that the deficit is not a bi-partisan problem.

Donald Kerwin

Executive Director, Center for Migration Studies

To win a substantial share of the immigrant and minority vote, better messaging will not suffice. The Republican Party will need to embrace Bush's vision in word, but mostly in deed.

The New York Public Library

Creating the library for the future

It's been just over three weeks since voters took to the polls, but here at the Library, one of the issues we've been discussing is how race played a role in this year's election and the future of American politics.

Arturo Vargas

Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO)

Despite the strides made during election 2012 to ensure that Latino representation at the state and congressional levels is beginning to mirror the demographics of our country, there is still much work to be done.

Eliseo Medina

International Secretary-Treasurer, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Latinos aren't fooled by such measures that reward one set of immigrants over others and, most importantly, don't provide a path to citizenship for individuals who are every bit American.

Michael Farr

President and majority owner, Farr, Miller & Washington, LLC

Elections are over, politicians continue to bicker, and Greece insists on furthering their already impressive implosion. Thanksgiving may help if it can bring to mind those seminal American values that are the foundation and bedrock of our country.

Catherine Meeks, Ph.D.

Author, Community and Wellness Activist

We need to hold onto the notion of allowing compassion to rule us instead of politics. Though the election is over, many have found it difficult to let it go and to move on to the work before us.

Michael Goldstein

Political writer, author, mediator and death penalty appeals lawyer

We would have focused on how to bring back Democrats in 2014. But when Clintons or Obamas are at the helm, people can again see that we need far better than what they can ever give us, given that their links to corporate support are not qualitatively less than those of the McCains and Romneys.

José Fernando López

Editor in Chief, PODER Magazine

With things as they are -- and even though there are several districts that will be redefined during the next few years -- it will not be easy for the Republicans to lose their majority in the House, at least during the current administration.

Jesse Lasky

Writer

Politicians seem to think Americans are goldfish, that we don't remember anything that happened more than three seconds ago. That's silly. It's more like five seconds.

Brandon Bowlin

Actor/activist, animator, publisher, thedarkroome.com

So now here we are. Laurels and laments. Libation-filled laudatory and lugubrious leaps of self-loathing. One side won and the other lost. Clearly. Actually, lost is too tepid a word. The far right is seeing its final days... or not.

Manny Diaz and John Zogby

The GOP went a long way during the primaries and in the general election to create a critical mass of opposition to their exclusionist policies. Can they undo the damage done?

Ryan Campbell

Editor at DRM Capitol Group, Media Manager @DRMAction

This election, three things in particular were very good for "undocuqueers": Latinos came out to vote in huge numbers, marriage equality won big at the ballot box and many gays were elected to office.