As must be obvious from the parade of pundits sounding off from right, left and center perspectives of the political spectrum, Election 2010 was a huge mandate for change. The real question, as Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank notes, is whether President Barack Obama learned anything, including about this being a center-right nation. For that matter, did Republicans learn it?

We the people may tilt left on some issues, right on others, but most of us are deeply grounded in or near the almighty political center. Which is why politics is so often a frustrating exercise for voters who cast ballots for reasonable, common-sense change, yet get something far different from both the Republicans and the Democrats.

We spent Election Day talking with voters. They offered different takes on candidates, including the hotly contested congressional race. But beneath it all lay a weariness and frustration at being left behind by extreme wings of both parties and all the absurdity and nonsense that accompany them. Central Texans seemed set on taking their wrath out on Democrats this time for streamrolling liberal legislation through Congress that divided our nation.

One lesson emerges from Election 2010, 2008 and 2006: Don’t assume any political party is out for the count. We remember how, just two years ago, many newsmagazines and pundits forecast that the Republican Party would languish in electoral exile for decades after Obama claimed the White House in a historic election and Democrats took over Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, was even considered as Obama’s running mate in 2008 at the urging of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Two short but unsettling years later, the president’s policies have alienated just enough voters to ensure that whatever remains of his agenda is sure to be curtailed if not derailed. Pelosi will never again swing a gavel in Congress. And Edwards has been unseated despite voting against much of the new president’s agenda. His greatest crime this election cycle may have been having a “D” behind his name. Indeed, it now seems clear that you can’t be a conservative or even a moderate and survive as a Democrat. The party leadership has effectively seen to that, not the voters.

The lesson in all this and the sea changes we’ve seen over three elections is that this nation seeks honest, practical answers for increasingly serious problems of government and spending. Americans are not looking for extremist rhetoric, narrow-minded ideology and perennial gridlock. And if they sense Republicans are engaged in those pursuits, the GOP’s fortunes will change again. And so it will continue till somebody gets it right.