Red wave turns out to be a trickle

It may take a few days to determine which party will be in charge of the U.S. House and Senate, but Tuesday’s election demonstrated one thing clearly: All those who predicted that a Republican “red wave” would swamp Democrats all across the country now look like dopes.

A heck of a lot of talking heads in the media, both liberal and conservative, have proved to be plain old blowhards. Pollsters look more like carnival fortunetellers than political scientists. And the MAGA legions who gulp former President Donald Trump’s Kool-Aid for breakfast appear bewildered because the man from Mar-a-Lago turned out to be a drag on the Republican vote.

Defending the right to abortion was a big deal for young voters and threats to democracy were concerning to a great many others. Those folks turned out in record numbers to give Democrats a far happier night than most expected. Possibly the happiest person in the country was President Joe Biden. Despite inflation, despite his lagging poll numbers, despite the historical pattern of the president’s party almost always losing scores of congressional seats in midterm elections, Biden comes out of this election in better shape than any Democratic occupant of the White House in decades.

Still, after all the votes are counted, Republicans might end up with a very slim majority in the House and, if they get really lucky, a one-vote majority in the Senate. That would be significant if it happens because even a bare majority is better than being in the minority. Even that result is far from guaranteed, though, because the GOP offered too many kooky candidates and indulged the extremists in their ranks.

As a result, the red wave turned out to be a trickle.

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