The Electorate Has Spoken. Now What?

For conservatives, Catholics, and other Christians, the midterms might accurately be described as a disaster. There is no benefit in pretending that things are better than they are; humility demands a true recognition of our status.

Exit polls and even the President himself point toward the Iran War and its impacts on the economy as primary driving factors behind those who voted for Democrats, and those who simply failed to show up to vote for conservatives. If that is true (and it seems likely), there is a tragedy in the fact that people would ultimately care more about economic issues than moral ones. Dostoevsky asked the harrowing question whether we would be willing to build a perfect civilization if it depended on the torture and death of one innocent child. It would seem that for many, they would be content with the death of many children if it would lead to a cheap fill-up at the gas pump.

As someone who has been critical of the Iran War, the frustrations are relatable, but the corresponding actions are not. It cannot be the case that household expenses (as important as they are) should matter more than the moral issues that were being voted upon, both directly and indirectly (by election of pro-abortion candidates).

In fact, when voters were given referenda, they voted to expand abortion availability in nearly every state where it was at-issue (with the exception of Idaho). Pro-abortionists did not campaign on mottos like “safe, legal, and rare,” but with the vapid promotion of women’s choice and bodily autonomy. In fact, the abortion debate is no longer centered on when a child becomes “alive,” as we saw in historic arguments that bickered about whether the child was alive at 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 15 weeks, and so on. Instead, it is widely accepted that the baby is alive, and yet this factor is granted no moral significance.

Voting against data centers became a primary area of unification between the two parties, which seems to combine environmentalism with a hatred of AI and corporations more broadly. Forty-one data center-related ballot measures were up for a vote on Wednesday, with 40 of them resulting in passage. There is more consistency and unification on data centers than whether we should provide medical care to children who survive their own abortions. Whatever one’s stance on data centers, this fact should make us all shudder.

Eight trans-identifying people were elected during the midterms, in what is being acclaimed as the “gayest Congress in history.” While that is indubitably true, it is hardly a reassuring sign for things to come, whether we are imagining the future of protecting minors from mutilation, ensuring fairness in sports, or attempting to pass any moral legislation. These people are either profoundly mentally ill or are fetishistically seeking attention by acting in the most degrading and degenerate ways available to them. Even if their roles were entirely impotent, their election reflects badly on the electorate and provides a devastating example to young people.

In the state of North Carolina, voters chose a seemingly nonsensical combination. They opted to necessitate voter ID (again) and to put restrictions on taxation in the state, while also paradoxically electing Democrats (who are opposed to voter ID and in favor of higher taxes).

So when people ask, “Are things really as bad as they seem?,” we ought to recognize that in some ways, they are actually worse. This Congress will not accomplish much. President Trump would rather resentfully veto every bill that reaches his desk than work with the people who persecuted him and his family, and this will be to our benefit. Therefore, there will be another election before Congress is able to make major changes. However, we must lament the moral state of the country.

The American republic was set up for a moral people, and we cannot honestly say that we have that. Those who are fighting in favor of the pro-life cause are not reaching the majority, and ground is gradually being lost. The legal system is likewise being used to change the moral landscape and set a standard of acceptability that none of us should be comfortable with.

We need leaders to step forward and shift the Overton window by speaking the truth clearly and publicly. Likewise, we need to step into positions of structural power so as to begin engaging in cultural change regardless of whether it is an election year. This looks different for each person, but nonetheless is meaningful. Not every person is called to public life, but we are each called to express the Truth in (and by) our lives and to wield our positions well. There is much work to be done.