The 2014 GOP tsunami is the fourth time since World War II that Republicans have picked up control of at least one house of Congress in what can be called a midterm “wave election.” In each previous case — 1946, 1994, 2010 — a Democrat held the White House and Republicans thought the wave presaged his subsequent defeat. Each time, however, the Democrat won reelection relatively easily.
Conservatives who want to prevent history from repeating itself with yet another Democratic victory should learn from these failures. In each case, conservative overreach and establishment complacency combined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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