Opinion: 5 Lessons Learned From the Election

By Tim Gamble  11-10-2022

Here are my take-aways and lessons learned from this weeks election. I am speaking as a Patriot-Citizen and a Conservative.

1- We still have a lot work to do on Election Integrity. Obviously, there are huge problems in Arizona, but also problems in Pennsylvania and a number of other states. At least 17 states had issues with voting machines this election. This is a state and local level issue where we can have a lot of impact, if we are willing to put in the effort. 

2- Half of the American population is now Woke, and they are socialist or at least comfortable with the idea of socialism. We can no longer out-vote these people, no matter our enthusiasm. We have to change hearts and minds of some of these folks for future elections. In other words, we have to change some of them into more of us. 

3- The quality of our candidates matters. It is not enough that someone wraps themselves in the flag, and knows the right patriotic buzz-words to say. It is not even enough to hold the right positions on issues. Winning candidates need to have the gravitas equal to the task - they need the competence, resume, experience, and demeanor to be taken seriously by folks not inclined to vote for them simply because they have an R after their name. We need to do better at recruitment and development of candidates. 

4- The Ron DeSantis victory in Florida was HUGE. He won. He won by a huge margin. He won by a huge margin in a formerly purple swing state with a large Hispanic population. He won despite being vilified by the press (and to some extent by Trump). It is a good idea to look at how DeSantis won. "DeSantis won not by being a centrist or by being bipartisan, but by insisting that Florida is the anti-woke state," according to Liz Wheeler (tweet). Glenn Beck summed it up this way: "Ron DeSantis is the model. Be DECISIVE, not divisive" (tweet). 

5- Student Loan Debt is a much bigger issue than we realized. The under-30 vote turned out this election and went heavily to the Dems (+28%) based largely on this one issue. Elections are about the economy, but don't forget that for 45 million Americans with about $1.75 trillion dollars in student loans, those loans are a big part of their personal economy. It is as important an economic issue for them as are jobs and inflation. We need to figure out a better way of addressing this issue than just funny memes and digging in our heels, proclaiming "no help" for this segment of 45 million voters. We need better ideas and better messaging on this important issue. 

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Ad: I recently bought the book Why Social Justice Is Not Biblical Justice: An Urgent Appeal to Fellow Christians in a Time of Social Crisis, by Scott David Allen. I want to recommend it to my readers, as it does an excellent job of explaining the difference between politically-correct "social justice" and true Biblical justice. Social justice has creeped in modern churches, which have become weak as they seek to embrace worldly acceptance. Sadly, most church-goers today don't understand enough about social justice (or Biblical justice for that matter) to see the dangerous distortions embedded in the social justice concept. 

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