Well, that about sums it up, doesn’t it?
The biggest sweep away from the incumbent party since the post-Watergate elections of the mid-70s. At the time of writing (3:13pm on Wednesday, November 4th), the Democrats are a lock for at least 237 seats in the House (with more still to be decided), and 54 seats in the Senate (maybe as much as 56, when all is said and done). The majority of Governorships are now Democratic as well.
The math for the Republicans in 2028 and perhaps even 2030 and 2032 looks daunting as well — they are going to be defending more seats than having an opportunity to flip. This is as close to a generational repudiation of MAGA fascism as one can get. With luck (and assuming the milquetoast corporate center of the Democratic party doesn’t fuck this up), the GOP may be in the wilderness for a good long stretch — long enough, one would hope, for the pragmatists within their ranks to steer them away from White Christian Nationalist Fascism.
Fingers crossed.
But for now, Kansas has its first Democratic Senator in almost a century, and, should the final 5% or so of votes left to be counted stack up as they look to, a Democratic Governor and Attorney General as well. I’ll take that win.
The past 10 years have been scary. We were, without exaggeration, staring down the barrel of the most unapologetically fascist movement that the United States has ever seen, and the speed with which they dismantled the rule of law in this country was terrifying. We now have a real opportunity to correct course, and reclaim the ideals that we espouse.
Here’s hoping.