The editors of Tablet magazine suggest that Republicans helped the Democrats win by spending the last week acting like “cackling maniacs.” Mostly they have in mind “Tucker Carlson and his merry band of baby Nazis, CCP fanboys and stand-up comedians promoting Barack Obama’s policies (Iran good! Israel bad!) while denigrating America, celebrating its enemies, and injecting the political conversation with lethal doses of kooky conspiracies. . . .” They also blame people who indulge in “bizarre religious talk—invoking medieval Catholic concepts to address contemporary American politics.”

It’s a rant. And CCP fanboys and many of the editors’ other targets deserve some rants directed their way — mostly because their views are morally repellent. It’s also true that associating themselves with those views in the public mind would be a political disaster for Republicans.

But come on, this is not the story of the elections. It’s not even an important part of that story. The normal reaction against an incumbent president, Trump’s particular unpopularity, economic dissatisfaction, the geography of the elections, the Republicans’ shedding of reliable voters and attraction of unreliable voters during the last decade: All of this had a lot more to do with the Republican defeats. The vast majority of voters have not been paying attention to recent goings-on at the Heritage Foundation.

Representative Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) has a diametrically opposed explanation for the elections. To recover, he claims, Republicans need to “put America before Israel” and “quit attacking independent voices.” Sure, and maybe run Massie for president, too.