Stop denying the truth: The Democrats got walloped

No, it doesn't matter that the GOP had no agenda

Nunn, Udall, Lundergan Grimes
(Image credit: (Jessica McGowan/Getty Image, Doug Pensinger/Getty Images, Win McNamee/Getty Images))

Today is the day people will reassure you that the Republican victory in the 2014 midterms was not so big.

They'll say it wasn't really a repudiation of Obama. Or it kinda sorta doesn't count because the electorate was unrepresentative. They'll point to a handful of ballot initiatives and say that Colorado rejected the personhood amendment and Oregon and D.C. voted for legalizing marijuana. A little re-framing here, a hand-wave at some third-party spoilers there, and presto, it wasn't a bad day for liberalism after all. And hey, look, a federal judge overturned a ban on same-sex marriage in Kansas yesterday. It's a "Victory for the Left."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.