The bad news is that America has just undergone a national crisis of unimaginable internecine strife and turmoil, the aftermath of which we'll be dealing with for at least the next few years.

The good news? All that drama overshadowed the question of a Jew taking up residence in the White House. It's difficult now to remember how portentous the issue seemed a few months ago, isn't it?

Maybe now we can all congratulate ourselves at being so enlightened that a ticket with a Jewish vice-presidential candidate won the popular vote. But if we want to be more honest with ourselves, we'll admit that Lieberman, while unabashedly Jewish, does not challenge mainstream America's fears of "others."

In light of the bizarre election season just ended, concerns about the viability of the first Jewish vice-presidential candidate now seem quaint. Way back on August 8, 2000 BTGE (Before This God-Awful Election), when the selection was announced, however, the news was a sensation, and the nation waited to see if political or cultural chaos would ensue. Would the Aryan Nation or the Christian Identity crowd rise up enraged and institute American-style pogroms? Would it cost the Dems the anti-Semitic vote or, equally dangerous, simply the anti-PC, anti-pandering vote? Lieberman is an observant Jew who led the Democratic contingent of Clinton condemners in the Monica Lewinsky affair, but more legitimate were concerns about the propriety of his overt religiosity and his apostasies on Democratic issues like vouchers and affirmative action.

So, what happened? How exactly does a religious minority, especially one with a long history of oppression, get respect in our electoral system? Here's how: by being as amorphously religious as possible--moralistically using language of religion and values without referring to the particulars of your non-Christian belief system.

When I heard that America had its first black Miss America, my first thought was "Hallelujah!" quickly followed by "I bet she ain't very black." And she (current movie and Broadway star Vanessa Williams) wasn't, but she has certainly paved the way for minority women from barely black to downright Nubian. Williams, however light-skinned, is clearly black, just as Lieberman, however similar-looking he may be to every other vice president we've elected, is clearly Jewish. He's an easy Jew, the kind who doesn't make you nervous, the one you can nonchalantly, chauvinistically brag about knowing ("I forget he's Jewish") and forever immunize yourself against charges of anti-Semitism.

Lieberman is Orthodox and observant (walking to the Senate on the Sabbath but still voting, an act whose other-ness is trumped by its impression of self-sacrifice and duty so you can't help but be impressed). He's not a Hasidic Jew who chooses and takes pride in looking different by wearing a black hat or dangling earlocks. He introduced his Judaism to America partly through the prism of his courageous involvement in the Civil Rights movement as a young man. There's just no topping his having been a Freedom Rider.

In particular, feminists and blacks, among the two most loyal Democratic constituencies, were watched for signs of mutiny. Both groups complained that their long years of fealty and foot-soldiering (and, lest we forget, relative societal powerlessness) should have been repaid before that of a perhaps equally loyal but far less disadvantaged (or electorally pivotal) minority like the Jews. Both of those groups made their dissatisfaction loudly known, but only in the case of blacks was that in-house opposition ever feared to be based on anti-Semitism itself rather than on the proper functioning of the spoils system (read a related article here). All of which raises the question, Now that it's thankfully ATGE, are we past the point where racial, religious, or political minorities on national tickets are news?

Has America finally overcome?

If we have, it will be partially because the players knew how high the stakes were and took appropriate measures. To much Republican hooting, Lieberman and Gore took their Grovel Before Women and Racial Minorities Road Show all over the country during campaign season (click here for coverage of Lieberman's bent-knee appearance before the Congressional Black Caucus at the DNC Convention) and were a smash at mollifying disgruntled constituencies. The furious stroking and contrition paid off; no groups voted more overwhelmingly for the Gore-Lieberman ticket than those two. Women supported the ticket 54% to 42%. Those women were likely loyal Democrats undeterred by either anti-Semitism or jealousy; 94% of black women, 63% of unmarried women, 57% of female college graduates, and more than half of women voters who earn more than $75,000 annually voted for Gore-Lieberman according to The New Republic magazine.

Few feared that blacks would vote Republican but rather that they might stay home, if only to shake up a disrespectful, unresponsive Democratic Party long seen by some to have abandoned their most faithful voting bloc. But, as has been widely reported, they voted in higher numbers for Gore-Lieberman than for favorite son Bill Clinton in 1996 (and that's with large pockets of the black vote allegedly suppressed, uncounted, or disqualified). Nationally, after a tremendous nationwide voter registration and get-out-the-vote effort, 90% voted for the Democratic ticket, arguably putting to rest once and for all the theory of a general black anti-Semitism that goes beyond the rhetorical.

Best of all, he has a long record of sermonizing against America's corrupt entertainment industry and cultural vices in general; his Senate floor denunciation of President Clinton over the Lewinsky affair may well be the act that made him the vice-presidential candidate--enough fire and brimstone to soothe the soul of an evangelical Christian (the group most convinced of its own persecution these days) while also making most lapsed religionists squirm over their own lax standards.

Certainly, there's no gainsaying that we should be proud of ourselves for transcending our unease with Lieberman's non-Christian-ness. It probably helped to have a constitutional crisis and a rancorous five-week presidential ballot-counting period to distract us from any argument that Gore lost votes over his Jewish running mate. No doubt about it, though, we've made progress.

But Lieberman is the easy case. So are General Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, top Cabinet members in the nascent Bush administration who have "transcended" their race and gender. America is still a long way, though, from the day when an openly gay, Nation of Islam member, or God forbid, an atheist, has a realistic chance of occupying the Oval Office.