More than a decade ago, populist activists described the conservative movement they sought to displace as ideologically moribund and the American right’s primary electoral vehicle, the Republican Party, as politically inept. The GOP establishment, they argued at the time, seemed content to be the Washington Generals to the left’s Harlem Globetrotters, perpetual losers in a game rigged against middle America.
Well, if yesterday’s Republicans were the Washington Generals, today’s Republicans are the Washington Corporals. In the midterm season we just witnessed, Republicans lost not only toss-up and lean-R elections but also offices that, at the start of the midterm cycle, Democrats hadn’t planned to contest. Both houses of Congress flipped. Democrats gained a majority of governorships and flipped legislative chambers. They won Senate seats in Texas and the Carolinas. For the GOP, it was a colossal, crushing defeat.
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