Republicans are frantically seeking someone to blame for their completely predictable election defeat last week. But all their carping and evasion hasn’t yet revealed the most obvious explanation.

The United States in 2012 moved closer to its Founders’ vision of a citizenry free from religious bigotry and ideology, protected from subjugation by the wealthiest classes and allowed to live unbound lives. And we’ve at last become the melting pot we aspired to be—not one of Western Europeans—but a bouillabaisse that includes every race, nationality and culture from around the globe.

The candidates who lost last week seem bemused that we’ve actually become the inspired city on the hill—that beacon for those in the world seeking freedom and democracy—that we’ve oft claimed to be. Too many Republicans—candidates and voters—flaunt personal ancestries and claim privileges because “we got here first.” Yet these descendents simply arrived through the birth canal, greeted by a silver nipple. And they are now in the minority.

Immigrants, on the other hand, disembark after great personal sacrifice. Many were politically or religiously persecuted. Not a few suffer physically in their journey here. These men and women want nothing more than opportunity and dignity. They work hard; they fight our wars; they celebrate the gift of freedom they’ve earned; and they believe in family—and in America.

To win these new voters, Republicans claimed they’d fix the economy—and then talked tough about immigration policy; blamed the unemployed for not having a job; accused those at the bottom of just wanting the handouts; mistrusted women’s reproductive choices; and told us whom we should love. It’s easy to see how Mitt Romney’s dismissal of “47%” of us as unreachable served to seal his fate.

America’s promise is with its diversity—with those seeking liberated lives, not those conforming to dogma and doctrine.

Moreover, the world just witnessed non-violent democracy at work. More will seek unbound futures at home or here. And that can only mean evermore voters will support those who value and welcome them—and reject those who seek to evict them.