A rebuke that was years in the making

Republicans serious about rebuilding after Tuesday night’s ‘Blue Wave’ should start in the suburbs

“You play in the dirt, you get dirty.”

— Officer Jimmy McNulty in HBO’s “The Wire.”

For more than a decade, Republicans wallowed around in the mud with Donald Trump. They were happy to win the battle, no matter the cost.

Tuesday night, the dirt was nationwide and deep, and the price they paid was steep. The damage? We’ll find out in 2028.

Crimson red states like Texas, South Carolina and Kansas elected Democrats. In many cases, the results weren’t close.

Illinois was not immune. Incumbents like Seth Lewis in the 24th Senate District were ousted. The last red dots in the Northwest Suburbs, the 26th Senate District and the 52nd House District, both went to Democratic challengers.

The blue wave washed all the way down to county board seats in DuPage and Kane counties. Those boards now have Democratic majorities that, 10 years ago, would have been unthinkable. In DuPage County, once home to Republican giants like James “Pate” Philip and Henry Hyde, Democrats control 17 of the 18 seats on the board.

There’s no doubt that quality Republican candidates down the ballot were swept away in the wave.

“I believe (voters) were thinking about Donald Trump and the White House,” Lewis told Daily Herald senior writer Marni Pyke on Wednesday. “And that’s all the majority was thinking about, and they took it out on everyone. It’s disappointing — that the hatred for one person tainted the good that other people contributed.”

Silence comes at a price.

Too many Republicans sat silent as Trump ran roughshod over political norms, decency and, in many cases, the rule of law.

Republicans who dared to speak out often found themselves ostracized and out of office. Ask former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois what it cost him. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, too.

All of that winning led to one giant defeat. Maybe this is rock bottom for the Republicans. If it is, there is nowhere to go but up, and up starts with getting back to what the Grand Old Party once stood for.

If Illinois Republicans are serious about rebuilding, it should start in the suburbs, focused not on culture wars, but on fiscal issues. Not long ago, we had Mark Kirk in the U.S. Senate — a suburban Republican who was liberal socially and conservative fiscally.

That day can happen again; the sooner, the better.

Moderate Republicans need to wash that dirt away and rebuild the party. The cleaning starts now.