“At last,” Socrates asks in Plato’s Republic, “the tyrannical man is left for us to consider, his change from the democratic man, his character after the change is accomplished, and his mode of life, whether miserable or blessed?”

At last, yes. The midterm election results for the historical pattern, the routine flipping of popular opinion after the flopping of a presidency. But the speed of the Trump-led Republicans’ decline from the 2024 trifecta suggests a rout. As the “shellacking” that President Barack Obama got in 2010 (and again in 2014) anticipated the further shock of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, so the Democrats now have the chance to exploit the mood of repudiation. They are almost as schismatic as the Republicans are, but they are more disciplined. They can still blow it in 2028, but a centrist, optimistic and relatively youthful Democrat will be hard to beat.