To believe this cycle will be anything but a disaster for Republicans is to believe the political laws of gravity have been suspended.
Simply put: what goes up, must come down.
Political ascendency in American politics is temporary and cyclical. The party that controls the White House loses seats. And badly. Eisenhower lost forty-eight house seats. Nixon forty-nine. Clinton forty-five. W forty-two. Obama sixty-nine.
Senate and governor seats tend to change hands by double digits as well.
Voters want checks and balances. They don’t trust politicians and don’t want one party to have too much power.
Hamilton understood it as both proper and the very nature of our nation, “Caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition.” (Federalist 31)
It doesn’t mean you have to be an inevitable victim. Over the years we’ve worked with candidates like Arlen Specter and Al D’Amato who won cycle after cycle, even in terrible Republican years. They survived because had a compelling positive record and would not be outfought, outspent or outthought.
The question for elected officials (and those on their payroll) is whether you will be among those freshening up your resume next November or bragging about your political acumen and how you survived the Great Massacre of 2018.