On Tuesday night, the Democrats began their march back to relevance with smashing victories across the country. In Washington state, they took full control of government. In New Jersey, they replaced the abominable Chris Christie with a level-headed progressive.



And in Virginia, they held the governor’s mansion while threatening to take the majority in the house of delegates, the first time in 17 years they could accomplish such a feat.

Democrat Ralph Northam, the outgoing lieutenant governor, comfortably defeated Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who attempted to ape Donald Trump in the closing months of the campaign, attacking Northam for wanting to remove Confederate statues and fear-mongering about his alleged ties to the Central American street gang, MS-13.

In the end, none of it worked, and Trump’s unpopularity weighed his party down. This isn’t new. When a president, particularly one struggling with low approval ratings, isn’t on the ballot, their party suffers.

Under Barack Obama, Democratic gains down the ballot were erased at a remarkable clip. Trump, far more hated than Obama ever was, will likely allow Democrats to take many of these seats back. The questions will only be: how many, and how soon?

Trump, so bilious and incompetent and race-baiting, is the Democrats’ perfect bogeyman, and will provide a temporary reprieve from the soul-searching Democratic party elites must undertake. 2018 will probably be like 2010 in reverse, when a Tea Party revolt chased Democrats from their House majority and put Republicans on the road to control of every lever of American government.

Democrats are learning what most Republicans understood long ago: local elections matter a lot. Most policy is set at the state and county level. Everyday life occurs far removed from Washington, despite the screaming headlines and social media agita.

The new reality is rather simple: Trump is deeply alienating to Democrats of all ideological persuasions, urban liberals and suburban moderates alike. He is the great unifier for an otherwise fractured party, and will motivate Democrats to come together in a crucial election year.

Even with a gerrymandered map and natural disadvantages owing to the way Democrats are now packed into fewer districts, the Democratic party has a decent chance to win back the House majority in 2018.

This will obviously be devastating to the Republicans who dreamed, leading up to 2016, of a rightwing utopia under a competent ideologue. Instead, they got Trump, and Democrats are lucky it isn’t Mike Pence efficiently implementing every nightmarish, regressive policy dreamed up by some of the worst men the 20th century had to offer.

For progressives otherwise cynical about the pendulum shift of American politics and the way Democratic party leaders always manage to disappoint, there’s a lot to be hopeful about. The political machines are weak and the power-brokers are no longer mighty. The party is little more than a shell, which means motivated people with good ideas can take it over and remake it in their own image.

Republican activists and donors have long understood this, taking a moderate to conservative party and shifting it far to the right on social and economic issues. Even Trump can scramble this status quo only so much. Now progressives must act, tugging the Democratic party away from where it has been: too cozy with its millionaire donor class and corporations, and too unwilling to stand up for the poorest Americans.

When this happens, the Democrats will deserve to seize power and remain in charge.