The blue wave and America's era of unstable majorities

Since it became clear that the Democrats were going to take both houses of Congress, people have been asking me how to make sense of Tuesday’s midterm elections: the so-called blue wave where traditionally red states flipped blue for the first time in decades.

The Democrats performed very well on Tuesday, from congressional races to governors’ mansions to many remarkable gains in local offices in states that have been reliably Republican for years. We saw a real rebuke to Republican leadership and more voters backing left-of-center candidates. But my reaction as a political scientist is probably less exciting than most people expect.