Its Official: Republicans control 56 of State Legislative seats (the highest number since 1920) and 31 of 50 Governorships
By Noah Rothman
WASHINGTON D.C. (Texas Insider Report) On Wednesday the Associated Press called
the last outstanding race for Congress in Arizonas 2nd Congressional
district. With Republican Martha McSallys victory
the 2014 midterm elections have officially concluded and at the start of the 114th Congress in January Republicans will enjoy their
largest House of Representatives majority since before the 1930s Depression and the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt
with 247 members.
Republican Martha McSally narrowly defeated sitting Cong. Ron Barber (D-AZ) a former aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and her successor in office.
The last time the GOP enjoyed that large of a majority was the 71st Congress in 1929 and 1930.
In the Senate the GOP will be in an almost equally unparalleled position of power.
Republicans will control 54 out of 100 seats" The Washington Posts Aaron Blake noted.
Thats tied for their 4th-highest number of seats since that same 1929-30 Congress but the larger three were majorities of 55 seats i.e. only one more seat."
Combined with the GOPs dominance at the state legislative level (Republicans control 56 of seats in the legislatures the highest number since 1920) and the partys control of 31 of 50 gubernatorial mansions the Republican Party will be in the strongest position it has seen since prior to the popularization of Democratic progressivism.
The last time the GOP clearly had more power than today was in the early 1920s when it controlled more than 70 of governorships 69 of the House and more than 60 of Senate seats" Blake observed.
Thats nothing to sneeze at and it is all due to the ideological realignment of the Democratic Party.
The press and the political analyst class are near myopically focused on the Republican Partys ideological realignment. And it is true that the GOP has become a more conservative party since the end of the last century.
They rarely however devote much of their attentions to the realignment of the Democratic Party which has become markedly more liberal in the early part of this century.
The Democratic Party suffered two disastrous mid-term elections not because the GOP made no mistakes or overreached. They did both and they did so often. The Democrats suffered these debacles because the traditionally older and whiter midterm electorate has turned on the Democratic Party.
As recently as 1998 it was possible for a midterm electorate in a Democratic presidents 6th year in office to overlook their frustrations with the incumbent in the White House. That kind of dispensation toward Democrats from a midterm electorate seems nearly unthinkable today.
In many ways the Obama presidency has set his party back generations. Democrats console themselves with the notion that the president has accomplished things of which prior Democratic presidents could have only dreamed.
This weeks decision to loosen trade and travel restrictions on Cuba is only the latest development that progressives contend will ensure that posterity recalls the Obama presidency fondly. The most notable of these conditions however is the 2010 health care reform law.
But either through retirements or lost elections half of the U.S. senators who voted for Obamacare all of whom were Democrats will be gone in 2015. Among those who remain doubts about the political disaster the Affordable Care Act has wrought for the presidents party are tearing the Democratic coalition in Congress apart.
For a party that views FDR as its ideological godfather it is a supreme irony that a president who supposedly represented his second coming is instead overseeing the destruction of his legacy.
Noah Rothman is Associate Editor at HotAir.com. He served as a Political Analyst & Editor with Campaigns & Elections Magazine during the 2010 election and was Editor with Mediaite.com during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles.
