It’s difficult not to almost sense a feeling of disappointment in this article from Steve Peoples at the Associated Press. The subject of the piece is the outcome of the midterm elections, of course, but not the list of winners and losers or the balance of power in Washington. Peoples instead focuses on the list of dire “threats” that were facing the nation when everyone went to the polls. The mega-MAGA Republicans were hell-bent on destroying democracy, or so we were told. There would be “extremist violence” and “voter intimidation” running rampant. Republicans would refuse to concede defeat and respect the outcome. Sadly for those who were anticipating such chaos and mayhem, basically none of that happened. And the people peddling all of those stories are now scrambling to explain why.

There was no violence. Many candidates who denied the legitimacy of previous elections lost and quietly conceded. And few listened when former President Donald Trump tried to stoke baseless allegations of electoral fraud.

For a moment, at least, there’s a sense of normalcy in the U.S. The extremism that has consumed political discourse for much of the last two years has been replaced by something resembling traditional democratic order.

The post-election narrative was instead focused on each party’s electoral fate: Republicans were disappointed that sweeping victories didn’t materialize, while relieved Democrats braced for the possibility of a slim House GOP majority. At least for now, the serious threats that loomed over democracy heading into Election Day — domestic extremist violence, voter intimidation and Republican refusal to respect election outcomes — did not materialize in any pervasive way.

Notice how the author talks about the shocking “sense of normalcy” around the country on election day and how it may be here only “for a moment.” You know how those crafty mega-MAGA Republicans are, right? All of the “election deniers” are probably just biding their time until they can strike when liberals and mainstream media figures are least expecting it.

But what would they do now that most of the ballot counting has already concluded? Would they take to the streets and set fire to government buildings and police vehicles? Would they block off transportation routes, even for emergency vehicles? Oh, wait… we’ve actually seen all of that before. But it wasn’t conservatives fuming about the prior election doing it. It was BLM.

The only thing a few hundred of the “election deniers” did was basically trespass inside the Capitol Building on January 6, supposedly in an attempt to prevent the certification of the previous presidential election. (A goal they failed at miserably and almost immediately.) But boy howdy… we’ve heard about it on a daily basis since then, haven’t we? Despite the fact that nothing else of the sort happened.

Instead, what the alleged mega-MAGA Republicans and their allies did was wait for two years and then head to the polls. (Sadly, they did so in insufficient numbers in too many places.) And they voted. And now they’re engaged in an internal debate over whether the GOP needs new leadership in Washington to prevent another disappointing outcome like the one we saw last week.

Sounds really dangerous, doesn’t it? Voting for a new Republican Speaker and a new Senate Minority leader would be a terrible threat to democracy if you listen to some of the analysts on the left. Because you never know when the voting will end and the Molotov cocktails will begin, right? Oh, wait. That’s right. I forgot already. That’s the other guys again.

Of course, we all know what the true greatest threat to democracy is. Soccer. (Some of you may enjoy clicking on that link even if you like soccer.)