While we all get wrapped up in this year’s Election of the Century, remember: It won’t be long before everything is turned upside-down all over again. Remember 2008? Remember when Barack Obama was elected president and it was historic and game-changing and nothing would ever be the same and Republicans would be in the wilderness for a thousand aeons? The Democratic supermajority in the Senate began when Al Franken was seated in July of 2009 and lasted about six months, when Scott Brown was elected to replace Ted Kennedy specifically on a pledge to oppose Obamacare. Then came the shellacking in November.
Whenever you talk about a “wave” or “realignment,” just remember James Carville’s quickie triumphalism, rendered almost instantly irrelevant upon publication in 2009.