So I’m left with one final thought that attracts me to still hope for a (one-vote) Republican Senate majority. It is not a grand-scheme-of-things sort of principle, but rather a smaller item of tactics and practical politics for the next four years.

A Senate controlled by the GOP—by one vote—could be a good outcome. If the Democrats win a real edge in the Senate (which is now possible) and control the House, I fear they will run wild over centrist Biden. To his credit, the current Democratic nominee did oppose Medicare for All and a few more of the Democratic left’s other Certifiably Bad Ideas.

And Biden is, at heart, a bipartisan Senate dealmaker. In the best sense, he is in many ways the Bob Dole of the Democratic party. A single-vote Republican majority in the Senate would give a President Biden more leverage with his party’s left wing.

And that would be a good thing.