Because last night wasn't just about Abigail Spanberger turning Virginia bluer than Stephen Miller's balls, or Mikie Sherrill wildly outperforming her Democratic predecessor.
It was about the reappearance of a voter we were told had gone extinct: the suburban, exasperated, moderately liberal-to-centrist American who wants government to function and is profoundly over the MAGA circus. That voter came out in an off-year election, not for a Trump-sized spectacle but for basic competence.
And MAGA lost to that.
Let me walk you through the nightmare.
First, Virginia. Republicans had convinced themselves that 2021 wasn't a fluke, that Glenn Youngkin's "I wear a fleece vest so I can't possibly be extreme" act was the new template. They told themselves the northern Virginia federal-worker cataclysm of DOGE, Russ Vought firings, and the Trump shutdown was no big deal. They decided to replay the 2024 classic "Trans trans trans trans trans", which went over like a wet fart in a hot car.
Then Abigail Spanberger walks in and doesn't just win ... she wins big. She wins while being unapologetically pro-democracy, pro-functioning government. She wins in a state with a large military and intelligence community footprint that remembers who stands with Ukraine and who thought Putin is dreamy. She wins in exactly the places Republicans told their donors they could hold forever.
That's bad enough. But Democrats didn't just take the top slot. They took the other statewide offices. They look set for full control in Richmond. That means policy. That means maps. That means the next time Republicans tell you, "Just wait until we draw the lines," you can say, "Buddy, those lines just got drawn for you ... by Democrats."
And for MAGA, that's the first omen. Because the Trump-era GOP is built on the idea that structural advantages will save them: gerrymandered maps, weird turnout patterns, off-year lethargy, rural overperformance. Last night showed what happens when you remove one of their cheat codes.
When Democrats fight the right battles, Republicans have to win on message.
They did not win on message.
As a Californian, it's a welcome event, to be able to redistrict and get rid of the fascist grifters that get elected by Orange County and the Central Valley. We have almost no representation in Congress, relative to our population, and we're always near the end of any decisions like primaries in federal elections.
This will be a nice change, and hopefully, we get rid of the Republiclown MAGA losers who constantly set us back financially and socially.