There was no red wave. There was no red tide. There was no red trickle.

There was a fizzle.

The 2022 midterm election fundamentals would have suggested a ringing Republican victory: an unpopular president of the opposing party, deep public unhappiness with the state of the economy, unified Democratic control in Congress, radical social policy out of step with most Americans. Polls showed Republicans cutting deeply into Democratic constituencies including Hispanic and black voting blocs.

Yet as of Wednesday morning, Republicans, who were widely expected to win historic margins in the House of Representatives and to take back the United States Senate, are coming up short nearly everywhere. They will likely take back the House, but by a slim margin after an extraordinarily tepid showing that may land them with a majority of just north of 220 seats; they are unlikely to take back the Senate, given that the deciding vote will likely come via a runoff in a Georgia Senate race featuring the highly-vulnerable and troubled candidacy of Hershel Walker.

So what happened?

What happened is that in many districts and states all over the country, Republicans picked bad candidates. Believing that the fundamentals were all that was necessary to sweep them to victory, Republican leadership failed to intervene in these primaries to the extent necessary to ensure durable general election candidates. They stood aside largely out of fear of Donald Trump; Trump himself personally intervened in a variety of cases in the primaries, endorsing candidates almost solely on the basis of whether they were sufficiently sycophantic regarding the election of 2020. 

Those candidates then lost.

And then Donald Trump ripped them. Take, for example, Don Bolduc in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a toss-up state; late polls suggested that Bolduc, despite his myriad oddities and strong support for Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, might win the race. Instead, he lost by double digits. And Trump promptly took to Truth Social to let the world know that Bolduc deserved it: “Don Bolduc was a very nice guy, but he lost tonight when he disavowed, after his big primary win, his longstanding stance on Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Primary. Had he stayed strong and true, he would have own easily. Lessons Learned!!!” He also took the time to issue a statement celebrating a Democratic winning the Colorado Senate seat, ripping Republican Joe O’Dea, who had refused to countenance Trump’s election 2020 obsession: “Joe O’Dea lost BIG! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Republican Party had one job in the 2020 election cycle: to provide some semblance of responsible leadership. Where they didn’t, they lost. 

And where they did, they won. 

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, who re-opened the state during covid, ensured children could go to school unmasked, kept the economy open, handled Hurricane Ian, and fought off the predations of wokesters and corporate Left-wingers, won an overwhelming victory: he grew his 30,000-vote, 0.4 percent 2018 victory margin to 1.5 million votes and nearly 20 points , and took the entire Florida GOP along for the ride. Republicans picked up four House seats in the state, Marco Rubio defeated Val Demings in the Senate by over 16 points, and won the Hispanic vote outright, taking even historically blue Miami-Dade County. 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump was taking potshots at “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp handily defeated Democratic darling Stacey Abrams, despite Trump’s personal attempts to defeat Kemp in his primary – again, due to Kemp’s failure to illegally flip the state to Trump in the 2020 election. Kemp is trusted by Georgians; he won.

There is a silver lining here for Republicans. Democrats, who should have been taught a lesson by voters, were saved by Republican incompetence and pusillanimity; that means they’ll keep doubling down. Joe Biden is, barring actual incapacity, the prohibitive 2024 Democratic nominee. And the fundamentals will continue to move against Democrats as they pursue a woker and woker agenda.

This means Republicans will get another bite at the apple – but only if they get serious. The time for frivolity is over. The laws of political gravity apply. Nominate good, sober candidates capable of governing and earning the trust of Americans. Pick your culture war battles, and hit them hard. Make it hard to vote for Democrats and easy to vote for you.

This isn’t tough stuff. But if Republican leadership is unwilling to pursue the obvious, the shipwreck of 2022 will be only the beginning.

Alan Jackson was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards.

The 64-year-old country music star received the award during the show at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. on Wednesday night.

"Country music has been real good to me and I fell in love with it when I was a young man," Jackson said as he accepted the award.

He continued, "I really love the instruments, the steel guitars and the fiddles and things like that that gave it such a unique character to me and made it its own. And I love the lyrics and the songs and the artists and the melodies and the harmonies."

COUNTRY STAR ALAN JACKSON OPENS UP ABOUT HEALTH WOES IN RARE INTERVIEW: ‘I’M STUMBLING AROUND THE STAGE NOW'

"It's just a real American music to me."

The two-time Grammy Award winner recalled how he became inspired to pursue a career in country music after watching a movie about the life of Hank Williams. Jackson said he came to Nashville "with nothing," adding, "Carrie [Underwood] is talking about three chords and the truth and mine was like three chords and prayer. And God answered that prayer, a little bit."

The "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" hitmaker went on to thank his wife Denise saying, "We started out as teenagers and she's been on this roller coaster ride with me for 40 something years now."

"I'm probably not always the easiest person to love, but she's hung in there and helped me through hard times and we share great times. The good and the bad, the happy and the sad. We've survived a lot. And I just want to thank her because she's held me up all these years and she's my best friend."

"I've definitely lived the American dream," he said. "And I'm still living that honky tonk dream."

Ahead of the award presentation, Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Jon Pardi, and Lainey Wilson paid tribute to Jackson.

Underwood sang a few bars of his song "Remember When" before telling the audience that the first concert she ever attended was one of Jackson's shows. "Seeing him perform helped inspire me to pursue my dreams," she said.

"It's been said that country music is three chords and the truth, and in every one of Alan Jackson's songs, there is truth," Underwood continued. "For his powerful voice speaks to us about hope and heartache, about fun and friendship, about tragedy and triumph, about life and a little about love."

Bentley, Pardi and Wilson performed a medley of Jackson's hit songs including "Chattahoochee", "Drive (For Daddy Gene)" and "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow" before Jackson took the stage to give a rousing performance of "Don't Rock the Jukebox."

Instituted in 2012, the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes artists who have gained the highest degree of recognition in country music and have positively impacted and contributed to the growth of the genre. 

Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Charley Pride and Loretta Lynn have previously received the honor.

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Jackson challenged the country music genre’s pop leanings in the ’90s while selling millions of albums and scoring dozens of hits. The Georgia-born star has been named CMA entertainer of the year three times and has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Jackson revealed last year that he had Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a degenerative nerve condition that affects his motor skills. Last month, he announced that he was postponing the final two dates of his Last Call tour until 2023 after suffering a health setback. 

On the red carpet, Bentley told Fox News Digital that he was thrilled to be honoring Jackson, adding that he was a huge fan of the artist.

"This is one of the top Hall of Fame members of all time in my mind, as a songwriter, as a singer, as a representative, an ambassador of country music across the world. He is country and he's the definition of it. So I'm really honored to be part of this collaboration tonight."

Country music singer Jessie James Decker told Fox News Digital that she and Jackson were both from Newnan, Ga. and went to the same high school. She recalled that she sang the national anthem when the town named a highway after Jackson. 

"And then here we are honoring him tonight," she said. "You know, it's just wild how the world works. But such a special night to be a part of."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.