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Why Midterm Turnout Matters For Your Freedom
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Staying home feels like a protest until you realize who benefits from your silence. We sit down as Rick Green, David Barton, and Tim Barton to talk through the midterm election with a biblical worldview, a clear-eyed political strategy, and a deep concern for the future of America’s constitutional republic. If you’ve ever thought, “Both parties are corrupt” or “My vote won’t matter,” we challenge that instinct and explain why disengagement doesn’t send the message you think it sends.
We wrestle with the reality that general elections are often a binary choice between imperfect candidates, and we argue that your vote isn’t a Valentine for someone you adore. It’s a chess move that helps decide what kind of culture gets promoted, what laws get prioritized, and whether destructive ideas gain ground. We dig into concrete stakes that rarely make headlines: judicial confirmations, cabinet and agency appointments, and how a shift in congressional power can stall reforms for years.
We also address frustration with stalled legislation and point out why a small number of lawmakers can block progress, and why the answer is better turnout, better primaries, and better training for future candidates. Finally, we connect civic engagement to biblical stewardship, using the parable of the talents as a sobering reminder that burying what we’ve been entrusted with has real consequences.
If this conversation sharpened your thinking, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people hear it. What’s one practical step you’ll take to help someone else vote?
Faith, Culture, And The Midterms
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Builder Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. I would say the midterms is a hot topic, making sure that our voice is heard, that we're taking care of our constitutional republic, that we're doing our duty, that we're good stewards of what we've been given. And there's a whole lot of biblical, historical, and constitutional reasons to do exactly that. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Our program, The Wall Builder Show, available on our website at wallbuilders.show and podcasts everywhere.
Why Sitting Out Backfires
SPEAKER_00And today's program, you definitely want to share. We are down to just a few weeks, guys, for the midterm, and it's huge. And we've got a lot of folks that claim to be conservative, Republican, Christian, whatever label that are even talking about staying home and not exercising their duty. What do you guys think about that?
SPEAKER_01You know, I think this is probably, man, I hate saying this because we've said it before, but we're further downstream. I think this is the biggest election in my lifetime because we've been able to do more good in the last two years than we've done in the last 40 years. And if we do not pick up this election, that good stops. And at that point, you allow the enemy to consolidate, you allow progressives to get back on their feet, you allow them to come back in. I think we'll see a counterattack like we haven't seen in our lifetime.
SPEAKER_02Well, and Dad, uh, one thing, not to contradict you, but to add a little nuance, I think you probably agree, um, is if if Democrats pick up this midterm election, when you say that all the good is stopped, um, apart from God, uh, because right, when you look at Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan had a lot of good accomplished and he was dealing with the Democrat House and a Democrat Senate, but it did not go as far as it could have or we would have liked for it. Maybe it should have gone. And I think that's the bigger concern. It's not that all of a sudden now God can't use President Trump or the administration or a Mike Johnson or anybody else who might be around when you have amazing people like a Josh Hawley, uh James Langford, uh uh Ted Cruz, all these incredible people in the Senate, yeah, there's still gonna be amazing people there. But in our mind, it's so much easier to see how this works out way better if Republicans maintain the House and the Senate. But guys, along the lines, one of the important things I'm seeing a lot on social media are people saying, look, Republicans just as corrupt as Democrats, you know, all these promises they made, they haven't been kept. So there's no reason that we should even go and support these Republicans anymore. And some people, some Republicans are saying, look, I would never vote for a Democrat, but I'm just not gonna vote at all because I'm so frustrated. But when you choose not to vote, thinking you are going to send a message, you are not sending the message you think you are sending. Well, the message that you are communicating is not your disgust. The message you're communicating is I support Democrats being in power. And uh whatever they're going to do, I support more so than voting, even though I'm frustrated for a candidate that is not my favorite, for a party that might not
Choosing Between Imperfect Options
SPEAKER_02be doing the right thing. And by the way, we are talking about parties right now because when you look at what the parties are promoting and supporting, even though by the way, as I'm saying this, uh, I would like for everybody listening just to also keep in mind that you are listening to three people David Barton, Rick Green, Tim Barton, who have been in and around politics collectively for at least 80 plus years, right? 90 years, maybe coming up on a hundred years, um, with Rick Green having actually been a state legislator, been in that process. Uh, Dad, you were a statewide elected uh GOP official, uh helping run the state party of Texas. Uh, we we have worked with so many campaigns and so many legislators and congressmen and senators. All of this, I'm saying it because if if people listening are going, well, I don't think y'all understand, I would say, no, no, no. We understand way better than you think we do, because we have actually worked with people that were incredible disappointments. We have been behind people that made bad decisions. And by the way, what we decided to do when that happened is go find better people to replace them so that we have better options. And frankly, this is one of the areas, dad, you can talk more to this uh on uh like ad nauseum on large scale. Uh Rick, obviously you could too with all the recruitment you've been doing with Patriot Academy and helping to train up these next gen leaders. But one of the problems we see for so many of the leaders on like the Republican Party side of the aisle is they're not recruiting and training the rising generation to be the kind of leaders we want. And therefore, we get stuck in many cases with people who aren't the best candidates, they're just the ones that happen to show up. And on election day, all you can do is vote for the best of those options. And I'll tell you here in Texas, when you look at Ken Paxton against James Talarico running for U.S. Senate, now Ken Paxton's been an incredible fighter in a lot of what he did. But if I had to pick my ideal person, it probably would
A Concrete Candidate Contrast
SPEAKER_02have been Ken Paxton. But when I compare Ken Paxton to James Talerico, I'm like, this isn't even close. James Tallerico, not to mention all of the heresy that he promotes, endorses, and embraces, which is crazy. But the fact that he believes that kids should be able, children, children should be able to choose when they transition and how they transition. And by the way, maybe even against whatever their parents think, when he thinks that boys should be allowed to play in women's sports, when he thinks that abortion is a totally viable, justifiable, and moral thing. Because one of the things that he says, one of the lines that probably will end up going viral again before the election is when he was talking about the Virgin Mary and God requested permission from the Virgin Mary before she had Jesus. So Jesus was only born because of her consent. And he's suggesting that if she had not given consent, Jesus would have been aborted. Now that's heresy, like crazy amounts, lightning strike, probably coming near that dude, stay away. But I'm saying this because the reason I'm absolutely on board with a guy like Ken Paxton is not because I support everything that he's ever done in his life, but it's because the comparison between the two, the platforms that the two are supporting, it is incredibly clear. And I'm saying this knowing that there's a lot of people that are frustrated and they're going, Well, I don't like this person, I don't like that person, I don't like what the party's done, and you know, the the Senate right now, the Republicans in the Senate, and they haven't passed the Save Act. And I think we can go down a lot of things. And I understand all that frustration, but if you don't show up, what you are ultimately doing is you are handing a win to people that are promoting literally demonic ideologies. And we haven't even gotten into some of maybe the biblical reasons of stewardship, et cetera. Uh, but uh it's worth noting that when you think I'm gonna sit out to send a message, the only message you are sending is that I only want to be part of this when I get my way. And actually,
Chess Thinking Over Feelings
SPEAKER_02you're playing checkers, not chess. You're not thinking ahead, you're not being strategic. Your vote is not a Valentine, you're not casting a vote for the person you like the most. You are playing a game of chess for who's gonna do the best job at advancing the kind of civilization I want. And by the way, sometimes it's who is going to bring the least amount of destruction to the civilization I love, because sometimes it's two really bad candidates. And okay, well, this person is less evil, less destructive in their policies than that person. So I'll support this person. But this is where we have to start thinking a little deeper, a little more strategic. You're playing a game of chess, you're not playing a reactive checkers game. You have to think deeper and think moves ahead. We cannot be guided by our emotions in these moments. We have to be critical thinkers and strategic thinkers.
SPEAKER_01You know, and something I'd add to that is we're told in 1 Corinthians 4 that it's not the world you see that is the most important. It's the world you don't see. And that's in a spiritual sense. I mean, we're surrounded by what we we know and what we see, but yet there's angelic forces, there's demonic forces, there's spiritual forces, things we don't see, and that's really the more important world than what we see. And I think that, and going back to even some of the things I was talking about earlier, that I think this is one of the most important elections, let me throw out some things that we're not thinking about, nobody's talking about. Uh at this point in time, there is a definite chance that the Republicans might lose the Senate, and there's a definite chance they might lose the House. So there are definitely clear pathways for the Democrats in some of those areas if things go their way. Okay, so here's here's the deal. If that happens, if our people do not show up and vote and they take the Senate in the House, even if it's by a small margin, you have just lost all the votes you're
Spiritual Stakes And Unseen Forces
SPEAKER_01going to have to confirm judges. So you will have lost two years of judges. We've talked in this program how that what we've had from these judges has been some of the best in like 70 or 80 years, that all stops. All that progress stops. I mean it goes back to progressives, and so you get back to a living constitution. They're going to enforce their policy, not uphold the Constitution. That's something at stake in this election. I'll also point out that if we lose the House and Senate, you will no longer get any Trump nominees in his positions as cabinets. You will not get a Marco Rubio. If Marco decides he's going to resign to run for president, you won't have any replacements for him. You're only going to get a replacement the Democrats approve. And if that Democrat approves that replacement for cabinet level or agencies or anything else, that's not good news for us. That worldview is so bad. So the other thing that comes with that is if you can't get, you know, Trump will nominate somebody conservative, they're not going to confirm it. That means every six months you have to have a new nominee because they can serve temporarily an acting director for six months or so. So the whole thing comes to a stop. And that's what I'm talking about, not in terms of all the good things that have happened. You just won't get any more good things. You're stuck with two years and you will not get any more good things. You will get what the Democrats want or what the Democrats want to stop. And that's not good for the direction of America, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02And by the way, it's worth noting too, when people say they're so frustrated with the party. Again, I largely understand and can appreciate that sentinette. But what I would point out is if you look, Dad, you mentioned like the U.S. Senate. There's 53 Republican senators currently in the U.S. Senate. And the reason the Save Act hasn't gone through is because of five, six senators.
Judges, Confirmations, And Power Levers
SPEAKER_02It's not because of 53 senators as a whole. No, there's 40 plus senators who 45 probably who would vote for it right now. It is a very small selection of people that have identified as Republicans. So whether it's it's a Republican senator from Maine or Alaska, right? And we can kind of go down the list. We know who they are. We know the ones that are not supportive of this. It is a very small selection of senators that are not advocating for these kinds of values that maybe, right? Some people would call them rhinos or moderates, whatever title you want to give them. But the reason it matters is we are letting frustration with a very small number of people dictate for many people the idea. Well, then I won't cast a vote for anybody else on that ballot. I won't support anybody else in that party. Right now, there's only one party that has people advocating for the unborn children. There's only one party that has people advocating. I mean, largely speaking, I say this knowing that there's 435 members of the House. And I think there were like six Democrat uh congressmen and women that supported saying no boys and women's sports. So let me just say collectively.
SPEAKER_01But Tim, you did say there's only one party. You didn't say individuals. And so you're right. There's only one party that's moving that direction.
SPEAKER_02Well, and that's the point. So even though when I say, look, there's only one party that's advocating for keeping boys at a girl's sports, and someone might say, Yeah, but this one Democrat over here, okay. But they had to break with their party again because the parties are promoting certain ideologies. And this is where I think a lot of people get frustrated. And by the way, rightfully so, we get frustrated so often. We don't live in that frustration as Christians. Uh, we try to have more of a Joshua and Caleb approach, recognizing that God is bigger. We we have a nehemiah strategic approach. Let's go rebuild this wall. We need to recruit better people, we need to be actively engaged in this. We need to get more pastors activated, which just kind of big picture in the midst of this conversation. Um, kind of our our purpose statement at wall builders is we want to strengthen courageous leaders to preserve freedom in America. And we understand freedom is only preserved if you have the right biblical moral foundation. You have to have the Christian foundation rooted in the word of God for freedom to thrive in the nation. So you have to have that foundation. We're trying to strengthen those courageous leaders. So whether it be the pastors that we're trying to get to lead their congregation to maybe cause some people out in their congregation to run for city council school board, to run for a state office where you can be a state rep. We're trying to strengthen the courageous educators who would pour into the next generation. And I'm saying this because we are strategically working that direction. We don't get frustrated with the way things are going. That this is not the moment to throw your hands in the air, to take your ball and go home. This is the moment to roll up your sleeves, to come back, to recommit to rebuilding that wall. And we cannot allow, as we're coming up in the midterms, our frustration to keep us. And again, we haven't even gotten into the stewardship idea of a biblical mandate of what it means to be a steward. We cannot allow our
The Break And A Founders Resource
SPEAKER_02emotions to overwhelm our strategic understanding of what we are doing, our commitment to voting for people that promote certain values collectively as a whole. And by the way, sometimes it's we are voting for people that will bring about the less amount of destruction, the least destruction of those values and the things we love, because maybe it's like, no, these are both terrible candidates. Okay, well, which one is the worst? And don't vote for them because we still have been given a stewardship mandate. And I know we're coming up on a break. Uh, guys, maybe after the break we can come back and even talk about some more of this stewardship idea. Because frankly, I feel like anybody listening, if you are a Christian, you, if you are a US citizen, if you are registered to vote, you should know you have a moral Christian obligation, a stewardship duty that you have to let your voice be part of this election process going forward. But maybe we can come back to that after the break.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's take a quick break, guys. We've got a lot more to cover on this. It's definitely a responsibility issue. This is so important for us to get right. And honestly, it doesn't matter the personalities, the candidates, or whether or not we got the policies yet. We have a duty either way. Even if things look bad, we still have a duty to do the right thing. So quick break, we'll be right back. You're listening to the Wall Boiler Show.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we want to let you know about a new product we have here at Wall Builders called Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, The Signers of the Declaration. Like most Americans, you might be someone that you recognize some of the names of the Founding Fathers, but do you know their story? We want to help remedy that. My dad and I have written biographies on all 56 signers of the Declaration to help reintroduce people to the men who literally signed their names on the line for the sake of the nation. When they did this, they knew that they were essentially signing their death warrants. They were risking everything for the hope that they might be able to purchase freedom for the rising generation with their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honors. In spite of the hardship that every one of them endured, none of them recant or backed away. Now, if you don't know their story, you can get to know all 56 of them. Go to wallbuilders.com and look for the book Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, the signers of the Declaration.
SPEAKER_00Welcome
Frustration, The SAVE Act, And Reality
SPEAKER_00back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us talking about the upcoming election. And as Tim was saying before the break, just a lot of people that have kind of been blackpilled into thinking, oh, it doesn't make a difference. All the parties are the same. And so, Tim, you were pointing out just some of the differences in the parties, let alone uh even just think about this, guys. Just the just the access when who's in power, if the Republican Party's in power, the access to the good guys versus access to the bad guys. And what I mean by that is just think of the 250th and how we would have been doing drag queen celebrations for the 250th birthday of the country versus a rededication to God. Well, that's not an actual piece of legislation getting passed or not passed, but boy, does it change things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it does change things. But I want to go back a little bit to the thing about being frustrated. I'm gonna point out that for me, I I really don't get frustrated with guys, ladies in Congress that don't do what I want them to do and what I think is not conservative. And let me kind of explain that. For example, with the SAVE Act, Tim, you're talking about the SAVE Act, and we're a few votes short on that. I love the fact that three of the senators who were against the SAVE Act were replaced by their states with voters who chose someone different to go represent them in this last election. So in the general election, we're gonna have three people in the Senate that oppose the SAVE Act that now have three candidates running in their place that support the SAVE Act. That's the solution. When I look at somebody that's that's somewhat liberal, I'm not disappointed in the way they vote. I'm disappointed in the fact that the people who sent them didn't choose somebody better or that they didn't turn out to vote. I I realize, look, I'm in Texas. Susan Collins in Maine is exactly what Maine looks like. It's not what Texas looks like. And so I know that Susan Collins is not going to vote against abortion. I know that she's not going to vote in a lot of stuff, but I also know that Susan Collins will vote for all the judges and all the nominees that Trump pushes for it. And so I wish the people in Maine would have more conservative people. I wish there were more churches in Maine. I wish there were more voters involved in Maine. But what we get out of Maine with Susan, and so if I'm in Maine, I am absolutely voting for Susan Collins. She's not Texas, she's not conservative, she's not Oklahoma, she's not Ohio, but she is Maine. And I say not conservative. She's probably 75-80% conservative, but not on every issue I want. Well, and Dad, let's be clear too. You wouldn't have voted for her in the primary if there was a better option.
SPEAKER_02That's right. That's right. But if it comes to the general and it's her or some Democrat socials of America that wants to abolish the Senate, that wants to expand the U.S. Supreme Court, that wants that boys playing in girls' sports, there really is a distinction. It's really easy to have moral clarity when you see how far apart these individuals are. And so when you're saying, Dad, if you were in Maine, you would clearly vote for her. Well, yes, if if that was the best of the two options, absolutely you would vote for her. But we
Primaries Versus The General Election
SPEAKER_02would never vote for her in the primary if there were better options, and hopefully there would be. And maybe again, that's kind of like a state issue. We we need to work so that we have better people in the primaries. And this is a shameless plug. If you've never been to leadership congress at Patriot Academy, you need to come get trained, know how to have a biblical worldview and how the process works, so that if one day you want to run for state office or if you want to help on a campaign, you know how the process works. It's it literally, it's like one of the main reason Patriot Academy exists is to help train the next generation so that God willing, in five years and 10 years, in 15 and 20 years, we're not having the debate about whether we vote for a candidate who is the lesser of two evils and both of them look pretty evil. It's always going to be a vote between the lesser of two evils because Jesus is not on the ballot. Uh, and I like to joke and point out the only time he was on the ballot, he lost the election to Barabbas. So even if he was on the ballot, I'm not sure we would vote for him anyway. However, the reality is we want to get the place where we're going, man, I'm not even sure how to choose between these two amazing candidates. They're both advocating for such godly things. I don't know which one would be better, right? I would much rather have that problem because we have begun training and recruiting better. And when we get to the primaries, we actually have really good options. And by the way, I know in some states there have been really good options, and those options didn't win from the primaries. And honestly, it's because we didn't have the right kind of education and the right kind of turnout from Christians in those states or communities. And so that tells us we have to do a better ground game. All of this is say there's lessons to be learned. But if it comes to the primary, the general, excuse me, out of the primary, if it comes to the general
Training Better Leaders For Tomorrow
SPEAKER_02election and Collins is there against, again, some crazy Democrat socialist, it's not even a conversation. I am going to show up and vote, even though she is, I think, the very bottom of all of the Republican senators. She is still light years better than the Democrat with all of the nonsense they're supporting and promoting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're exactly right, Tim. It is a binary choice at this point. We had choices in the primaries, but once you're out of the primaries, you've got a binary choice. And you, if you're in Maine, you've got Susan Collins or you have a Democrat Socialist of America. It's it's real simple. And that Democrat Socialist, that party has called for the abolition of the Constitution. Well, I'm not going to vote for Susan Collins because wait a minute. So you're going to let a Democrat socialist go in who is calling for the open abolition of the U.S. Constitution, and you'll let that go in because you don't think Susan. See, that's where we've got to change our thinking. When you get to this point in the election, you are at binary choices. You only have two choices. If you wanted better choices, you get involved back in the primaries and you get you run yourself if you need to. But at this point, it is all hands on deck. I'll just point out that last week that I mean. This is a big deal to me. Uh uh that's why I'm traveling the way I am. But last week in the in 24 in 48 hours, I I was at six pastors' conferences in three different states talking about voter turnout, and those are all in states where we have key elections. There's about 44 congressional seats that we've targeted that we're going to try to turn out Christian vote in because it is a binary choice. None of these candidates are perfect. And Tim, as Tim pointed out, you know, Barabbas wins the popular vote over Jesus. I look, that that just happens. But we are at a point now where that we are voting for the future of the country, and you've got two choices. And you may not like either one of them. Take the one you hate the least, and that's your choice because that's still incrementally making things better. And so this is just a really important election, guys.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I'll tell you, David, it is so important to get past the personal preference thing in the primary. So many people we get offended in the primary, and we don't want to go support the person that won the primary because our candidate didn't win. And I've been there, I felt that. I remember when Trump first ran. We, you know, we were all in for cruise. And David, you really convicted me and said,
Stewardship And The Parable Of Talents
SPEAKER_00look, you know, we had godly candidates. God had a different plan. We got to get on board because he's obviously better than Hillary, and he's turned out to be absolutely amazing. Well, I I've even been on the losing side of statewide races where I lost and I had to turn around and support the candidate that beat me. Uh, or here in Texas, guys, we, you know, if Paxton had lost and Cornyn was the nominee, we would all get behind Cornyn to make sure that Talafreco didn't win. But you have people that are literally willing to say, I'd rather vote for the freak. And I'm not talking about just in Texas, I'm talking about in other states as well. There's a whole battle in Colorado right now where people are are mad that that Victor Marks won the primary, and they're literally not going to vote in the November election. They would rather a guy that's okay with mutilating children win as the Democrat than the guy that they fought against in the primary. And it's just so childish, honestly. We've got to be more mature as Christians and say, like you said, David, it's a binary choice. Let's get past the emotions of the primary and now look at it as what are your two choices? Which one is better? And go support that candidate. Staying at home is not an option.
SPEAKER_02Well, and this again is where if we think logically, you're seeing these things and like this doesn't make sense. Why would you not vote for a candidate who believes boys and girls are real things, that they're not the same thing, that boys shouldn't play in girls' sports, that we should not go in and surgically or medically castrate children. I'm not gonna vote for somebody that supports that because I don't like the person. And therefore I'm gonna allow the person who wants all the extreme things to be elected. That's crazy. It doesn't make sense. And this is where I again would contend. I think it's far more spiritual than most of us realize. And I think there's a lot of people with hurt feelings that are being influenced by something that is, I'm not saying they're demon-possessed. I'm saying it's a demonic influence that's trying to encourage you to not be godly because we have a flesh. There is a real devil who wants to keep you from doing godly things. And guys, again, we really didn't even get into this idea that that we are supposed to be good stewards of what God gave us. One of the very noted parables from the Bible, the parable of the talents. The master leaves, he goes on a journey, he leaves the servants in charge of all of his possessions, of all of his things, and says, Do business until I return. And when he returned, hey, how did you do with what I left you? And ultimately, there was the one servant who the Bible outlines for us that had the one talent and said, Master, I was scared because I knew you were a hard man. You you reap what you haven't scattered, you gather what you haven't sown, and and and because I was scared, I buried it in the ground. But here I've brought it back to give to you what you gave me. And the master says, You wicked lazy servant. If you knew I was going to demand something from you, you should have at least invested it because you did nothing. Take it away from him, give it to one who has 10 and throw him into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I think we forget there was legitimately serious consequences for the servant who is not a good steward of what the master had entrusted to him. And I think we will be very careful that in our life we always work to be good stewards. And one of the stewardships we've been given in America is the freedom to be the we the people, the leaders of this republic. But if we don't continue to show up, if we don't vote, if we don't let our voices be heard, we run the risk because of our bad stewardship of losing this amazing thing that has been entrusted to us.
Vote And Bring Ten Friends
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's so well put, Tim. I don't want to be the wicked and slothful servant. I want to be the good and faithful servant. Listeners, encourage you to do the same thing and not only to go vote, but to get 10 other people to go vote as well. Make your list, check it twice, call your friends and family, make sure they're registered and get them there to vote. Let's have a good Christian turnout in the fall, have a good result in the election, and move the agenda forward. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to the Waffle Show.
