It’s humbling for all involved in America’s electoral process to realize that each midterm election season–all the contests put together–comprises no more than a paragraph in the history books. The significant elections merit a bold, detailed paragraph, while the run-of-the-mill midterms get a tepid, sketchy paragraph. Most election paragraphs are tepid; big midterm earthquakes are rare.
So what will 2006’s paragraph look like? Will it be lengthy and dramatic, or brief and underwhelming?
To attempt to answer this, let’s see if we can discern any useful historical patterns among the post-World War II midterm congressional elections…