The Democratic election night drinking game might be going on for a while after the GOP gave the party a shellacking at the polls. For Republicans, it was the red wave; for Democrats, it was more like the Red Wedding as they lost just about everything that was up for grabs. The Washington Generals could have beaten the Dems last night. Michael D. Shear sums it up in the NYT: “The full magnitude of the Republican Party’s success in reshaping the national political landscape at President Obama’s expense became clearer Wednesday morning as the party seemed headed toward an even longer list of electoral victories in Senate and governor races that had been too close to call before dawn.”

+ New Yorker: The horror show for Democrats began early and ran late.

+ “From the outset of the campaign, Republicans had a simple plan: Don’t make mistakes, and make it all about Obama, Obama, Obama.” WaPo: How the GOP did it.

+ “The Clarified Butter State opted to continue allowing hunters to bait bears with sugary treats before shooting them dead.” The Atlantic provides some local election highlights.

+ 11 big firsts from the midterm elections.

+ The good news: The world is more democratic than ever. The bad news: In the short term, elections make society less happy overall. (But eventually that unhappiness cedes to a general feeling of frustration, alienation, and hopelessness…)