How are Americans thinking about the future after the great reshuffling of the deck on Election Day that carried Republicans into power in the House of Representatives and across the constellation of state capitals? If you ask Lizzie Adams and Wendy Craddock that question, you get a strikingly similar answer, even though Adams is a passionate supporter of President Barack Obama and Craddock is a Republican who believes that the Tea Party movement, to which she belongs here in Larimer County, will reshape and reclaim America. Both said this election, whether out of defeat or victory, was a renewed call to action and engagement -- an alarm signal to push harder than ever in support of steadfast convictions. Many other voters, in a post-election swing through this deeply divided, fought-over county, expressed a similar thought: Election over, game on. Larimer County, a historically Republican part of northern Colorado that, like the state as a whole, is becoming harder to predict, cemented its position as a bellwether on Election Day. The results -- especially in the closely watched Senate race, won by Michael Bennet, a Democrat -- provided a mirror of the statewide tally. Bennet, the incumbent, won Colorado with 47.7 percent of the vote, to 46.8 percent for the Republican candidate, Ken Buck. In Larimer, Bennet got 47.8 percent of the vote. The divisions in the county were further underscored in the 4th Congressional District race. Rep. Betsy Markey, a Democrat, carried Larimer by 115 votes out of more than 114,000 cast, but she lost to her Republican opponent, Cory Gardner, when the more rural and Republican areas in the district came in strongly for him. Many voters here, interviewed on a recent gray and frigid day threatening snow at 7,500 feet in the mountains, said they thought that gridlock in Washington and a stalemate over partisan politics were possible outcomes with a divided government and a passionately aroused, divided population at home. But while some said that gridlock and a failure by the Republicans to compromise with Democrats in solving problems would lead to a backlash in two years, others said the opposite -- that failure to push vehemently enough on Republican promises like repealing the health care overhaul would be enough to replenish voter anger and lead to a second wave of change. Lyle Jensen, 74, a retired mechanical engineer and a Republican, said he had become concerned about the future for his grandchildren, mainly because of the debt loads he fears they will be burdened with. So he is starting a new business, selling a line of healthy chocolate products, as a way to help them find their way into the unwritten future. 'I think my grandkids are going to need it,' he said. 