Has The Red Wave Crested?

It took me a day or so to start thinking this, but I am now wondering if the recent election does not represent a far greater blow to the Republicans than most people yet realize.

Consider how everything seemed to be aligned to favor their plan:

A relatively unpopular President, whose manifest accomplishments have been totally obscured by Republican smear campaigns, aided by a mainstream press largely owned by, and only responsive to the demands of, the rich.

An off year election which normally produces a strong showing for the opposition party, including typically a loss of 30+ seats in the House and several in the Senate.

Decades of gerrymandering that had built secure Republican districts all across the country.

The judiciary had been so packed with corrupt fascists, that it was considered acceptable to have masked people with assault rifles at polling places, wherever they could intimidate Democratic voters.

Election officials across the country that have been threatened  into resigning, to be replaced by crooked Republican partisans.

40% or more of the electorate have been mesmerized into accepting a totally fictitious view of American politics.

Hundreds of right wing lawsuits, concocted by attorneys carefully trained to push corrupt and baseless legal theories are now routinely filed by Republicans after every election.  These lawsuits are inevitably rejected by the courts, except for a few which wind up in front of judges as criminal as the attorneys who file these endless motions, but they serve the purpose of delegitimizing the real winners of the elections.

Billions of dollars were provided by sociopathic billionaires to lie to the American people about the candidates and the issues- money legalized through a corrupt right wing court decision, and which can never be matched by grassroots fundraising from the left.

And open cheating and vote suppression have been accepted as legitimate campaign tactics by the right, often codified into law by Republican supermajorities in State legislatures, many of which owe their presence to all of the behaviors listed above.

This represents a near perfect storm, presaging (as all of the pundits insisted) a Democratic wipeout in the November elections.

But that is not what happened.  Despite an almost cosmic alignment of forces against them, Democrats held their own.  If Republicans do win control of either house of Congress, it is likely to be a Pyrrhic victory, leaving them with so small of a majority that they will be open to endless Manchin-style blackmail by a couple of rogue figures; and if you think Manchin and Sinema were incredible assholes, wait until the dissenters are the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, or others who might well be willing to demand the end of Social Security or collaboration with Putin's fascist war, in return for not destroying the economy.  

The truth is, Republicans had everything in their favor this time, and couldn't seal the deal.  And every year, the demographics of this country get worse and worse for them.  I really wonder if this November doesn't represent the absolute peak of the red tide.  If we keep building on our success, we may just have beaten back the fascists without the civil war they have been blabbing about for a decade.

We're not out of the woods yet, but I really wonder if the worst might, unbelievably, be behind us.  I'm not used to playing Polyanna, but I have a glimmer of hope that I didn't have a week ago.