Gosh, people get all excited about these American elections, don't they? It's a sea change! The end of Republican hegemony! The dumb American electorate has finally awoken from its Bushevik slumbers! The extreme Republican right has been resoundingly repudiated! And similar claptrap.
In point of fact, congresscritters from the party of a sixth-year president almost always lose big. The Republicans this time did a little better than the historical average. So there's really nothing to see here. And all we did was elect more politicians!
There do seem to be small signs (not to be exaggerated) that some independent-minded people are fed up with both the Democrats and the Republicans. But whether that will translate into meaningful change at the federal or state level remains to be seen. Don't hold your breath for, say, a new party of practical libertarians or a resurgence of the Whig Party. And if you think this is the end of the line for big-government Republicans, check your premises.