Bernard Rapoport, 93, is celebrated as a successful and innovative businessman. He and wife Audre are among the most generous of philanthropists. He’s also the patron saint of Democrats everywhere, and last week he was in grief at what befell his party nationwide, especially the defeat of his close friend, 10-term U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, the Waco Democrat undone by a first-time candidate from Bryan.

“I’ve been so lugubrious my wife doesn’t even want to see me,” he said over lunch Friday.

Ultimately, Election 2010 was one of blind anger. How else to explain an electorate in Central Texas and beyond that derailed conservative and moderate Democrats? What else explains the incongruity I saw among everyday voters on Election Day?

Example: Election of a tea party activist as county treasurer whose lack of fiscal credentials could spur county staff to expand to cover his shortcomings.

“The big thing for me is this sense of entitlement that these politicians have that they can stay in office as long as they want,” 48-year-old Sisi Brewer told me, explaining her vote against Congressman Edwards. “I think they need to be sent a message.”

Then she admitted voting to re-elect Rick Perry, even though he’s been governor 10 years and, after another term, will have served in the job 14 years, not counting years before as lieutenant governor, agriculture commissioner and state lawmaker.

“Well, my only other option would have been to vote for the other party, and I wasn’t about to do that,” she explained.

She wasn’t alone. Many acknowledged they voted for Republicans who had been in office a considerable length of time but weren’t about to extend the same privilege to Democrats.

Reason: Seething anger at high-profile Democrats, particularly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arguably the Most Hated Woman in America thanks to her divisive rhetoric and lack of regard for genuine bipartisanship.

Add a controversial new entitlement program created in the thick of $13.7 trillion in debt, a jobless recovery and constant battering by right-wing talk radio and Fox News, and you’ve got the makings of political apocalypse.

“I’m just wanting to get a broom and sweep,” one graying woman told me as she clutched her voter’s registration card and raced through the rain to vote.

“Why can’t we have a bipartisan Congress up there?” 75-year-old Franklin Cossey asked. “But the Democrats, they don’t like that!”

Some voters were frank to the point of embarrassment. A very gracious and delightful 92-year-old woman on her own raised the chronic tax and ethics problems of state Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson — “he’s kind of silly, isn’t he?” — but admitted voting for the Waco-based legislator because, whatever else, he was still a Republican.

Then she asked if I knew who was running against him because she sure didn’t.

Even those voting for Chet Edwards, the very foundation of the crumbling Democratic Party in McLennan County, voiced disdain for his party’s national leadership.

“I’m a Republican and I’m voting because I don’t like what’s going on in Washington,” 80-year-old Deannie Morrison said. “I’m voting for Chet, though. It’s like they say — he may be a Democrat but he’s our Democrat. He’s done a lot for us.”

Unfortunately for Edwards, not enough Republicans felt that way this time, which led to defeat despite an aggressive campaign and a peerless record of constituent service that significantly shaped Waco, Bryan/College Station and Fort Hood.

If one scene explains the massacre, I saw it as congressional challenger Bill Flores made an Election Day stop at First Baptist Church of Woodway. Flores, who shrewdly campaigned more against Pelosi, President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid than Edwards, said voters often asked him to save our nation for their children and grandchildren.

While I was talking with Flores, a middle-aged man bound for the polls came up, shook Flores’ hand vigorously and said: “Be fiscal when you get up there.”

“Don’t worry,” Flores quipped. “I’ll treat that money like it’s yours.”

A game reply — and a tall challenge with yet another volatile election looming in just two years.