The GOP is regularly blasted as the racist and anti-woman party. Yet, last night, the GOP accomplished some things for black people and women that have never been accomplished by the Democrats.

First, GOP voters elected Tim Scott as a Senator from South Carolina:

[Tim] Scott is . . . the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction.

Scott beat Democratic Richland County Councilwoman Joyce Dickerson, who also is African-American, and Jill Bossi of the upstart American Party.

I’m sure South Carolinians voted against Joyce Dickerson because she is black, though, right? Nope. Stop it. This is just another sign that Republicans give less concern to racial issues than Democrats. Republicans vote Republican, black or white. If anything, it seems the Democrats, if not racist, are certainly more racial. They take the “black vote” for granted, as if politics were a racial issue. It isn’t. Republicans know that. Why can’t Democrats just become post-racial already?

On another historical front, GOP voters in West Virginia elected that state’s first woman senator, Shelley Moore Capito. This is also the first Republican senator from West Virginia in 55 years. But her Democrat opponent was also a woman. So I’m sure Republican West Virginians just voted against the Democrat loser because she’s a woman. Right? Nope. Stop it.

To add insult to injury, Joni Ernst was elected as a senator in Iowa. She becomes the first military woman ever elected senator, and, you guessed it, she is also from the GOP. Ernst was asked about the war on women narrative the Democrats keep spinning. Her comments are priceless: “I’ve been to war, and this is not a war.” No one with any sense ever thought it was.

Again, the GOP voter base apparently votes according to principles to a much greater extent than the Democrat party voter base. Democrats have been riding the pro-black, pro-woman, pro-minority train for too long, and with too little to show for it. They say they are the party of the people, but really, what have they done for the people? Not a whole lot. It’s a charade. And perhaps yesterday’s historic successes mean that the GOP is finally being recognized as a party of principles beyond demographics.

Now let’s just hope they can actually make good on that confidence.