Littwin: Voters finally had enough of Trump’s corruption, insanity, indecency and autocracy

As I was watching the election results come in, I turned on a little night music, looking for words to explain what Donald Trump must be thinking. 

I came up with this: Oh, mama, could this really be the end?

It is. Trump is done, and if you’re looking for a new slogan to wear on a blue hat, how about this: “We Woke (Up) America Again”?

I figured for sure that Trump would say the voting was rigged, but in this blue tsunami of an election, he would have to be gurgling it.

But what happened was so real, and, at the same time, so surreal, that Trump told the New York Times that he was “absolutely willing to accept those results. We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out.”

This really happened.

That was on Tuesday night. Do you think Trump will be on the same page — the one that Natalie hands him — by Wednesday morning? Who knows, but even Trump has to know he lost bigly. According to exit polling, he lost in urban areas, in suburban areas, in exurbs, in every kind of urb.

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Barack Obama made the word “shellacking” go viral after one losing midterm election. This year, we wonder if shellacking can be an understatement.

By the time the night was done, we were looking at a projected 55-45 Dem Senate. And a projected 255-180 Dem House. Saddam Hussein couldn’t have rigged this election. And I don’t know who could have dreamed it up.

What happened? You know what happened, finally. All the corruption. All the insanity. All the autocracy. All the oligarchy. It all caught up with Trump. Voters finally decided it was enough. They decided that Elon Musk’s $450 million-plus in election spending was enough — more than $200 million of it going to the repulsive Ken Paxton. They decided that all the indecency — see: Ramaswamy, Vivek; see Paxton, Ken; see Trump, ballroom — was enough. 

It’s not as if Trump won’t make life in America his special kind of hell for another two years. He will. But will Republicans, so afraid of Trump for a decade, now be afraid of losing their seats by sticking with him? I mean, look what was happening to Jon Husted’s ass in Ohio.

We watched Senate seats go to Dems in North Carolina. In Georgia. In South Freakin’ Carolina, where Lindsey Graham’s sister, Trump’s hand-picked candidate, lost to Democrat Annie Andrews in one of the most conservative states in America.

That was a kick in the Jon Husted, who was behind Sherrod Brown in the Ohio Senate race early and stayed, uh, behind.

I watched The New York Times’ predictive needle point to Democrats leading in Senate races in Ohio, Texas, Maine, Michigan. Iowa and Kansas? Toto, I don’t think we’re in MAGA land any more.

In fact, I don’t know where we are.

It seems like voters weren’t too afraid that progressives, and even Democratic Socialists, were really communists. Check Melat Kiros’ overwhelming win in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District.

It seems like voters believed their eyes when ICE’s jackbooted thugs were shooting American citizens in the streets as Republican officials were cheering them on.

It seems like calling Texas Senator-elect James Talarico names — Trump favored Talafreako, which Talarico supporters proudly made their own — or saying he was gay or trans or anti-Christian didn’t work.

Being a bright-red Texan didn’t work for Republicans, as Greg Abbott, who was running for his fourth term as governor, learned too well. Abbott conceded. Paxton didn’t. He called on Trump to ensure fair elections.

You want unfair? As one person posted on Instagram, “Ted Cruz found out a blue wave was headed to Texas and immediately booked a flight to Cancun.”

People really had heard enough. And they had had enough.

Meanwhile, Democrats nominated moderates to run in many of the more moderate or conservative states, and the big tent ballooned into a Vegas-style biosphere, which could fit Trump’s proposed mega-non-victory arch inside.

And so, on a single night, the United States elected its first Latino governor, its first African-American female governor, its first Native American female governor.

And so, on a single night, a Democratic dream turned into a GOP nightmare. And for the next nine weeks, Republicans will extend that nightmare to the American people as the lame-duck Congress will do as much damage as possible. And we wait to see how JD Vance does when called to run the election certification.

Rep. Jason Crow, who easily won his race, as did all leading Democrats running in Colorado,  put it this way to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius: “We became the party of two coasts over the decades. Now we have to be in the heartland so that we become a broad-based party for all Americans.”

Before Tuesday, that would sound like a pipedream. Democrats have two years — and a presidential election — to make it happen.

And as I watched the results, I couldn’t wait to see what would happen in Colorado, where rebuking Trump is a quadrennial election-day habit.

It was no surprise that Manny Rutinel beat Rep. Gabe Evans in the swingable 8th CD. What was surprising was seeing Democrats leading late Tuesday night in all four GOP-led congressional districts. Those are the only real remnants of Republican power in the state.

In other words, imagine this might be a sweep, an 8-0 Democratic sweep, although Republicans are trailing only slightly in the 3rd, 4th and 5th CDs. But right now, I’d say the best thing Republicans in the state have going for them is that Victor Marx — the carnival barker who was predictably crushed in his race for governor — could perform a mass exorcism.

Here’s where matters stood Tuesday night: In the 5th CD, Rep. Jeff Crank told the people at his victory party to go home. He was trailing Dem challenger Jessica Killin by nearly five points. In the 4th CD, Rep. Lauren Boebert told those at her victory party to keep partying and danced a few steps with them. As I write this, she was trailing Eileen Laubacher by 6,000 votes. Didn’t hear about any partying in the 3rd, but Rep. Jeff Hurd was trailing Dwayne Romero by a little more than 3,000 votes.

I’m making no predictions. I’ll leave that to the pollsters, who were right for once this time.

But what I wonder is if Colorado Republicans, in thrall to Trump these many years, finally get the message. I don’t know how it could be more Trump-rebukingly obvious. 

The times, they really are a changin’.

Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.

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