Politically, I think the biggest stories of the 2012 elections were that the Republicans have a real problem on the national level and that the Democrats have a real problem on the district level. Demographic change has put the White House almost out of theoretical reach for the GOP, but so has a combination of gerrymandering and cultural polarization put the House of Representative out of the Democrats’ reach. Consider that the Democrats received more than a half million more votes than the Republicans in House races and yet did not even come close to winning control of the chamber.
However, the complete and total radicalization of the Republican Party and the media’s inability to deal with it are also big stories from this election. Mitt Romney and his campaign were phony and dishonest from beginning to end, in big things and small. From their principles to their logic to their policies to their talking points to their allegations, none of it was even minimally true. Yes, it was unprecedented.
