Mitt Romney was far from being the only Republican thinker “shell shocked” by his defeat. So was the author of this elegant communication I received after a column predicting that the 2012 election would mark the end of Richard Nixon’s “Southern strategy.”

“You are such a liar. You are not a journalist or a columnist, but rather a whore for the Democratic Party ... November will solve the problem when we kick your Satanic ilk out of our government. May you get a form of incurable cancer and die a long and painful death.”