At the beginning of last week, the general assumption in the Beltway chattering class was that the midterm elections would be a "red wave," leading to Republicans taking over state governments, the Senate and a healthy majority in the House of more than 20 seats. Instead, Tuesday turned out to be an anti-MAGA election. Yes, Republicans will (in all probability) end up with an extremely slim majority in the House, but only thanks to extensive gerrymandering. (Without the Republican pickups enabled by redistricting in Florida and New York, Democrats would have won easily.)
The verdict was clear enough: Voters don't like Republican extremism. Every time they're reminded that the GOP is controlled by a bunch of conspiracy theory-addled jackasses who worship Donald Trump, voters show up and pull the lever for Democrats, even when they don't feel all that great about the Democrats either.
