On Wednesday night, in a segment of “The Rachel Maddow Show” called “ReferenDUH,” Rachel Maddow asked why Republicans are trying to spin their losses on Tuesday in the polls as victories. She began the segment by telling viewers about a period right after the U.S. Civil War when a party called the Re-Adjuster Party sprang up in the state of Virginia. “The Democratic Party, which was conservative and racist at the time,” said Maddow, “was the dominant force in Virginia politics for a long time.” The Re-Adjusters won the governorship of Virginia “for a hot minute,” she explained, sending William E.