And Al D'Amato did the same to Jacob Javits in 1980. Reagan won, and created a new governing majority, bringing the now famous Reagan Democrats and independents into the fold. That majority has served the country well. But times and issues change. Busing is gone.
Crime is down.
Soviet communism is dead. It's hard to argue that the country is being strangled by taxes and regulation when the economy is chugging along at nearly 7 percent growth. And though it took them three presidential defeats to do so, the Democrats finally reengineered themselves, and they started winning. Along comes John McCain. Either by accident or by design, he has become an agent of creative destruction.