“In the red states, we got too used to winning easily. Far too used to it. We got so used to winning that it never occurred to us that we might not win, and it never occurred to us that we might have to work to win. We forgot that we need to earn votes, that we don’t just inherit them by right. Sure, some marquee candidates were awful,  but it wasn’t just the marquee candidates who lost. It was everyone from governors down to assistant deputy dog catchers. If you had an R by your name, you were about as popular as an openly herpetic participant in a polycule orgy.” ~~ Kurt Schlichter