The problem is that the Republican leadership betrayed their own base one time too many. What happened in 2014 was quite simple: the GOP asked voters to give them both House and Senate to put the brakes on Obama’s disastrous agenda, and the voters took them up on it. The capitulations and walkbacks began with days of the last races being called. The old song-and-dance about how “we’ll fight next time” and “we need just a little more power to get anything done” was performed one last time, to disastrous effect.