Writing for New York Magazine Intelligencer, Jonathan Chiat has a few thoughts on the midterm elections.

Republicans have been trying to create an environment that would allow them to enjoy all the benefits of Trump’s hallucinatory grievance narrative without any of the costs. But the midterms may instead suggest they must choose between mobilizing every last one of his cult followers and maintaining sane, or sane-ish, ancestral Republican voters.

Voters liked that Trump talked like them even though he wasn’t like them in the least. He spoke plainly in a way that resonated with a lot of people. Clinton tried to paint Trump as a serial adulterer and someone not worthy of the presidency. It backfired because the Clintons attended Trump’s wedding and Bill Clinton’s affairs. She could not embody the person who negates Trump’s strengths. People liked Trump and disliked Clinton. And she still destroyed him in the popular vote, and he had to basically land an inside straight to win the Electoral College. Trump is still overwhelmingly an unlikeable character, and the plain way he spoke gave way to his unfitness for office. Voters saw through that and nominated the guy who can negate Trump’s strengths: Joe Biden.

Biden is far from perfect. As a side note, the closest perfect future presidential candidate would be Barack Obama, who I am pretty sure does not want to run again. He would, however, wipe the floor with whomever the Republicans nominate.

As for the 2022 midterms, we still don’t know the ultimate outcome. The House might narrowly flip to Republicans or maybe not. The Senate looks like it will stay with the Democrats. The red wave was really a trickle and really the best midterm for an incumbent president in fifty years. Without the dust completely settled, I’d still say what voters wanted was a return to normalcy.