Quite a striking Republican victory tonight. Republicans entered the Senate races ahead in eight Democratic-held seats and within 1 point in two others. At this writing, with Alaska still out, they have won eight of those nine plus one of the two others, North Carolina. They lost, it appears, by 1 point in New Hampshire and — amazingly and a great tribute to Republican candidate Ed Gillespie — in Virginia.
On governorships, it was thought Republicans would lose seats on balance. They didn’t. They did lose in Pennsylvania, as expected, but prevailed in close races in Florida, Kansas and Wisconsin, won solidly in Michigan and have (apparently, at this writing) won in Massachusetts and Maryland — two states where Barack Obama won more than 60 percent of the votes in 2008 and 2012 — and Maine, where almost everyone expected Paul LePage to lose.
In the House, Republicans have apparently won more seats than they have won in any election since either (take your pick) 1946 or 1928.
I suppose that the Obama White House will try to spin this one way or the other. But not convincingly. The Obama Democrats believed that economic distress would make Americans more supportive of or amenable to big government policies. They believed that voters would rally to a party that vastly increased government spending in the stimulus package, that passed (we would learn what was in it afterward) Obamacare, that raised tax rates on high earners. They were proved about as conclusively wrong as any political movement can be in the messiness of the real world.
One other person was massively repudiated: Senate Majority Leader (until Jan. 3) Harry Reid. Reid, aided and abetted by solidarity in the Senate Democratic Caucus, blocked amendments and votes on measures supported by many Senate Democrats. That left the Democratic senators up in states that went for Mitt Romney in 2012 with voting records that were 96 to 99 percent in favor of the Obama administration. All of them lost, except for Mary Landrieu, who is almost certain to lose in the Dec. 6 runoff. Even Mark Warner, with a reputation for bipartisan compromising, ended up coming within 1 percent of losing after winning with 65 percent of the vote in 2008.
Democrats will argue that this was not an endorsement of Republican ideas. That’s a serious argument. But it was a rejection of Democratic ideas. And it presents an opportunity for Republicans — the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the Republican candidates for president — to present alternative ideas to make Americans’ lives better and to make America safe in the world. Americans have rejected the president’s party.
And, by the way, two groups which were supposed to give the nation a permanent Democratic majority, Hispanics and millennials, moved heavily against the Democratic Party. They have not embraced the Republicans — yet. But they have given them a chance to show how they can govern.
