Sometimes, it sucks to take the high road.  When they go low, we go high  has, sadly, led to loss   and now, in defeat, Hillary Clinton is being way too nice even still.No, seriously. Go check her Twitter right now. In case you can t, here are some screenshots that might make you feel a little sick: It s generic, tin-can conceding politician stuff, but she s still wrong, and shouldn t be saying those things. See, here s the deal. Republicans are going to use this election say they have a mandate from the American people to basically do whatever the hell they want.But they don t. They spent eight years blocking President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party from doing almost anything   they wouldn t even hold a vote on President Obama s SCOTUS nominee. Add that to the fact that Donald Trump likely lost the popular vote, and that Republicans lost seats in the House of Representatives (despite outrageously gerrymandered districts that very literally make democratic votes count less) and a seat in the Senate, and the reality here is that Republicans barely managed to win an election that was heavily rigged in their favor.Unfortunately for progressive causes and the millions of people that will be adversely affected by Whitelash 2016, it s unlikely that Democratic senators will be willing to take things as far as their colleagues across the aisle. It s hard to see Democrats stomping their feet and shutting down the government, for example. The Tea Party, by contrast, will do literally anything to accomplish their goals, and call this  principled.  In American politics, it looks like the willingness to stick by ideology no matter what is more of a winner than being reasonable or pragmatic.The truth is that we don t owe Republicans a damn thing. At this point, all we can hope is that the Democrats in the Senate keep a strong spine, stay  principled,  and refuse to let Republicans accomplish as many parts of  the most conservative platform in history  as possible. They have no mandate. The people did not vote for this. And it s up to what few blue leaders we have left to do everything they can to control the damage.Featured image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images