The results of last week’s midterm elections were remarkable for two reasons. Democrats retained control of the Senate, and while Republicans may take over the House, their majority will be significantly small. But the election also reinforced the truism that political moderates, not the far left or far right factions, traditionally determine which party prevails.
The more important takeaway is that the Jan. 6 insurrection at the nation’s Capitol stunned more Americans than had been assumed. They apparently decided months ago to make their displeasure plain by using the only weapon they have: their vote, a political two-by-four meant to ensure the GOP got their message.
Having ingested four years of Donald Trump’s lies about “rigged” elections and voter fraud, many of the arrested rioters claimed they believed he had encouraged them to protest his defeat. And for nearly 22 months, moderate voters were watching as many party members, ever fearful of Donald Trump’s wrath, brazenly refused to contradict his claim that “they” had stolen the election from him.
It’s still unclear whether the political nihilists will renounce their subservience to Trump, whose six years of lies led to the GOP’s current dilemma. But it is telling that as The Washington Post reported, voters in six major battleground states rejected efforts by election deniers who had promised drastic changes for the states’ election systems. It quoted Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, who called the midterm results “a vote for normalcy.”
Party leaders found some solace in the news that some 170 election-denying Republicans who voted against the routine Electoral College count by Congress won their House races. (Among them: the seven GOP incumbents in Tennessee’s congressional delegation.)