Unfortunately, the stakes are different

Wanted to recount the gist of a comment I'd posted here, to Christopher Hitchens' post mortem.

Last night, Republicans suffered a swing not unlike the one that hit Democrats in 1994. The distinction is that we live in a different world now.

It had taken Democrats 50+ years to so abuse their power that many of their traditional voters in the middle had had enough. Their time in power was that of the all-powerful major daily papers and three networks. Republicans, on the other hand, had the misfortune of taking over the House and Senate at the dawn of the Internet age when their constituents have unprecedented access to see them and what they do without distortion of MSM filtering. As a result, when they became every bit as imperious, out-of-touch and spend-thrift as the Dems, twelve years was all they were afforded.

In 1994, all that was at stake was simple power and the opportunity to reign in the more expansive aspirations of the Clintons' governing tendencies. Today, however, we're at war with an enemy who has struck us here at home once and wants nothing more than to do so again. It's unfortunate for the country that the party that was just thrown out appears to be the only one who recognizes that fact.