Why These Midterms Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's a wild builder show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. No hotter topic right now than the midterm elections. Just a couple of weeks out. David Barton, Tim Barton, and myself, Rick Green, we're all over the country right now. And it's for good reason. There's a lot of people that uh need to be reminded how important these elections are. Christians need to be reminded of their duty and responsibility to vote. And I'm actually hearing good things, guys. I mean, I uh I was at a dinner last night. Uh people are getting motivated, they're getting involved. Uh, a lot of people showed up for an event on a Sunday afternoon that I didn't expect before we went to the dinner. So, anyway, seeing some anecdotal good stuff, what are you guys seeing and what should we be watching for?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Well, I'm seeing the same kind of anecdotal stuff, Rick. This this week I'll be in five states doing campaign events uh in those five states. And uh, for example, uh I was just last night in Maine. And Maine, the Senate race there from the outside, um, they're fairly convinced that the Republican uh senator there is going to lose a seat and that'll be a Democrat pickup. However, the polling inside the state from political leaders inside the state shows a very different story from what national polling is showing. And I'm finding that in several places. Now we won't know who's right until after the election's held and over, and it doesn't mean that either polling is right, it just means that one side's people showed up and the other side's people didn't, to some degree anyway. So we'll

On The Ground Versus Polls

SPEAKER_02 1:35

see, but at least what's out there on the national circuit uh is not lining up with what we're seeing internally. And and this is now two or three states that I've been in where that the Senate race was spoken, and that's and by the way, we're choosing the states we're going into because they're states that are within two or three points, and it looks like that the more conservative candidate there is in trouble, and so we're trying to rally Christians to get out and and get involved. And what we're seeing in in those states is before we get there, the national polling is leaning toward the liberal. But when we get inside the state, the the polling from the pollsters inside the state and the campaign and the parties shows a very different story. So I, you know, I don't know, again, we won't know whether that's accurate or not until after the election's over and done with, and it's all on who shows up. The polls don't cast a vote. So if people show up, we'll we'll have good results. But at least the indications are better than what the national news is reporting uh in the places that we are right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Well, Tim, you've been a little bit on the on the West Coast and and the East Coast and um seen seeing uh uh you know blue states and red states. What are you what are you hearing and seeing? Yeah, I I think a lot of the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I I think um uh things that we are seeing on the ground make you question the polls, which at this point, uh, you know, the fact that even CNN over the last several days has been going, hey guys, uh you know what we thought uh polling is not really giving us the same indication now. It looks like Republicans uh, you know, if if they perform like they have been in elections past, they maintain the Senate, uh, maybe don't even drop one in the Senate, et cetera, et cetera. So I I'm seeing enough ground momentum

Discipleship And Voting Biblically

SPEAKER_01 3:20

that it gives me optimism. I I think one of the things that is my biggest takeaway is how much we need to return discipleship in the church that I am seeing on my social media, people that I have known over the years. Um, not necessarily that I'm I'm close to all these people, but obviously on social media, uh, you know, people that you were friends with 10 or 15 or 20 years ago and y'all have just kind of stayed on each other's social media. I'm seeing people post things about elections in different states where they're clearly supporting the candidate that is not upholding biblical values. Uh that they are moving in a socialistic or communistic or, you know, kind of go down that uh rabbit hole a little bit on what's happening so often on the liberal Democrat side with this red-green alliance, they're moving that direction. So what it's showing me, and by the way, these are people that are still connected in their churches. They they in many cases are still Jesus lovers, uh faithful uh church attending individuals, but they are are clearly embracing things that are not uh what the Bible would support, uh, and positions that the Bible actually speaks directly against. So all that to say is I'm encouraged by how many Christians and pastors are waking up. I'm encouraged by some of the grounds. Well, I see. I I expect that we will see a very high voter turnout in this midterm election, but I am seeing a lot of uh Christians, um, and and I don't mean to just, you know, use air quotes when I say that, but I'm seeing a lot of individuals that profess to love Jesus that are not upholding some biblical values and positions based on the candidates they are saying they are supporting. And I get the fact that there's people that are frustrated with uh Donald Trump or Republicans, I get that, but it's one thing to be frustrated with a Donald Trump kind of candidate with the Republican Party as a whole. It's one thing to be upset or disappointed with gas and grocery prices or what you perceive about the war in Iran. Like I get that that could be upsetting for some people, but when the alternative is socialists, communists, and Islamists, and and you're saying, you know what? No, I I'd rather vote for the people that think it's okay to murder an unborn child right up to its delivery date and maybe even after, right? Depending on how this goes, I think it's totally fine for biological males to go into girls' locker rooms and play against and compete against girls in female sport. I mean, literally, I go down the list of what these people stand for. And if it's a Democrat Socialist of America, which is quickly overtaking all the Democrat Party, the fact that they're saying, hey, we want to abolish the Senate, we want to abolish the Supreme Court, really, like we want to get rid of ICE, we want to open the borders, we don't really like police. Go down the list, and because you are upset with gas prices or groceries, because you don't like the way that the war in Iran is being conducted with your limited knowledge of what's actually going on, because you don't like that, you're gonna vote for somebody diametrically opposed to everything that is traditional American and by the way, that's biblical and Christian in virtually every aspect of a biblical worldview. With that being said, the thing that I am seeing is how much discipleship we have to focus on past this election in the local church just to help people begin to think biblically again. But I am still encouraged by the amount of people that are getting off the sidelines, that are getting involved, by the amount of pastors that are actually speaking out on topics and issues that have largely been silent on some of these issues up until this year or maybe the last two years. So I'm encouraged overall. I do think there's gonna be a high voter turnout, and I think it's gonna be potentially better than what is, and again, this is what CNN is even predicting now that if Republicans have a normal uh turnout like we've had in the last couple years, where it it it surpasses what polling indicates, that Republicans might maintain the Senate and actually do better in the House than people realize. And I think that is definitely a reality. So I'm encouraged in many respects, but then recognize the need for discipleship inside the church on biblical values and positions in other areas. So I'm encouraged, but recognize there's a lot of work ahead.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

You know, Tim, just to pick up with that, I I was listening to just some kind of individual clips, and there was a theme I heard the other night on one of the local news stations, is and this local news stations in one of the battleground states where it's really tight between Republicans and Democrats, and just to even put that in perspective,

Turnout Math And Redistricting Impact

SPEAKER_02 8:02

um, the places where I'm I'm going right now are all races that are within one point, maybe two points. So they're toss-up, they can go either way. Uh the meeting we had last night in Maine, there were enough Christians and pastors and churches in that building last night to where they could swing the election in the state of Maine. Maine doesn't have a real high turnout anyway. And even though you're you're talking about a U.S. senator or you're talking uh about a congressional race, a CD2 up here, there was the amount of people we had in that auditorium last night are capable of swinging that race. But I was listening to some of the news reports from other places, and and there was a lady, and the uh reporter was was saying, Well, how about gas prices? Because the the national pundits are saying, well, here's all the things that are going against um the keeping the House for Republicans says you got gas prices and you got inflation, all this stuff. And this lady said, I don't care if gas gets to $20 a gallon, I'm not gonna have a communist for my senator. And that's interesting because we we literally have some folks that are running for the Senate now that that are affiliated and endorsed by the communists and the DSA. So I thought that that's that's interesting, that economics is not the driving factor, at least for part of the group that's out there. And in looking uh even at some of the numbers, it it's it's interesting that in this election, we expect probably about 33 percent of adults will cast their vote uh in in this election. So that's one out of three Americans, which means that half of that could elect the senators, and half of that could elect the governors, half of that could elect the the congressmen. So you're really you're really talking somewhere in the vicinity uh of around 16.5 to 17 percent. Or in other words, one out of six Americans is going to be choosing the senators and choosing the the the winning senators and the winning House reps in this race. Uh i it it takes half of that 33 percent. So if you know 16 and a half, that's only one out of six Americans choosing the winners in this election. So if the it as Tim indicated, and we're hearing the same thing, if the numbers are actually higher this election, if there's energy on on the side to to kind of preserve the republic kind of stuff, then it it could end up being a lot more than than what people think. Uh we're seeing some of the numbers and they were they were thinking that Republicans and and by the way, just to put it in context, in the midterms, the president's party for the last several generations. In the midterms, the president's party loses on average twenty-five to twenty-eight House seats. So that's that's what typical is. And in the Senate, they lose on average four seats. Now, since you have a four-seat majority in the House, if you lose twenty-five to twenty-eight seats, that's done. The Democrats have it. And since you have a three-vote majority in the Senate, if you lose four seats, Democrats have that. But it it's interesting, it doesn't look like it's going that way in the polling right now. And of course, we're we're talking about all this without people having showed up, and they may show up heavier on both sides than we what we think are one or the other. But there's actually a scenario where Republicans might actually pick up a couple of Senate seats in this election, which would be pretty amazing. They might lose one they didn't expect, pick up two that are not expected, and and over in the House side, um Republicans are helped by the fact that midterm redistricting happened, and fifteen fifteen seats uh were redistricted to look Republican. So Texas gave five seats, more to the Republican side, uh Florida gave four, I think Ohio gave two, and then Tennessee gave one, Alabama gave one, et cetera, and then California gave five to the Democrat side. So there's a differential there of ten seats that are now more Republican going into this election, which means instead of Republicans having to hold twenty-five to twenty-eight, they have to hold fifteen to eighteen. And if the voter turnout is higher than what's expected, that's even plausible. And as Tim was acknowledging, I I saw in CNN the other night, they said, hey, it it's possible that if we're two points wrong on what our polling shows, the Republicans keep the House and the Senate. And that would be something historic. I mean, it's been generations since you've been able to keep the House and Senate in the president's party uh at a midterm. And so there's just a a lot of of interest out there, a lot of optimism that I've seen on the road, and a lot of potentials that even the the media isn't acknowledging right now. But again, it all depends on who who shows up, who votes, and so hopefully everybody listening is gonna vote and go get 184 of their closest friends to vote with them and and just turn it out. We we just got to turn it out for this midterm election.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

There are so many factors at play, and one of those factors, one of those objections I'll get you guys to address when we come back from the break, has to do with just the election process itself. And I know you've you've uh you know dove pretty deep into this topic. Uh, there's been so many changes in uh in election law across the country. So I want to just address that that sort of sort of black pill kind of give up uh notion out there among some people, saying, ah, they're gonna steal it anyway, or it's you know, the rig, blah, blah, blah, and causes people to not get involved. I think we definitely can address that when we come back from the break. Stay with us, folks. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show.

How To Share And Listen Anywhere

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Hey friends, Rick Green for the Wall Boulder Show, encouraging you to share the program with friends and family and listen to it on the podcasts that are out there. There's so many options out there for you to listen to in the car or from home or while you're working out. You've got Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Castbox. I mean, there's so many options, and we just want to make sure you know we've worked hard to get it out there and make it available for you on all those different apps. Everybody's got their favorite app, so choose your particular app. And if it's not on there yet, email us, radio at wallbuilders.com, and let us know about your favorite podcast app, and we'll make sure WallBuilders Radio is listed there. But you can listen and most importantly, share it with your friends and family. That's how the program grows. That's how we get more truth in the hands of as many people as possible. And then, of course, wallbuilders.show, super easy place uh to find all of those podcast apps and to just download right there from that website as well as be able to share it with your friends and family. So check it out today, Wabblez.show, or just go directly to your favorite podcast app, listen to the WallBuilders Show, and share it with as many people as you possibly can. Welcome

Election Security Changes Since 2020

SPEAKER_00 14:33

back to the Wabbleder Show. Thanks for staying with us. We're talking about some of the things coming up in the election, just uh, man, two two weeks and and a day away. And of course, um, you know, David, uh I I know you've talked about the whole election fraud thing, elect, you know, the election systems and all the different laws that have been passed. I know you've had some time to dig into some of that. How do what would you say to a voter that's, you know, they're conservative, they're Christian, they love the country, but they've been convinced that the system's so broken their vote is not gonna get counted anyway, or it's gonna get stolen anyway.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Well, if you are on an athletic team, I would say you've already determined you're gonna lose the game before you step on the field. Um, and that's an ad attitude you don't want to have. And I understand the the potential of having that attitude, so let me address it. Since the big controversy happened in the 2020 election between Trump and Biden, where you know the claim was stolen, and that's what led to all the fiasco that happened for the next several years after that with attempted impeachment and insurrection, everything else, um, there have been 156 laws passed to make it more difficult to cheat. There's five major kinds of voter ID laws or voter laws that have been passed to tighten up cheating or potential cheating in elections. So there's a lot more with voter ID laws, and by the way, there are seven states right now, and and I guess let me let me back up Rick and say it this way. A lot of those states have been passed, a lot of those laws have been passed in what we would consider maybe the red states or the more conservative states. You you haven't seen that that voter ID law passed in California or New York, et cetera. You've seen it passed in kind of some purple states and some blue states, or purple states and red states. But here's what's interesting on the ballot initiative in this election, I think there are seven states where the people got voter IDs on the ballot initiative in blue states. The legislatures didn't want to protect the vote, but the people did. And so the people are actually going to have a chance to really clean up their elections in that state on voter initiatives. This is the most fascinating year I have seen for voter initiatives. The things that people are going to get to vote on, it's like the voters have gotten tired of their legislatures and blue states cramming stuff down their throats. And so they're voting on not only five different, there's been five different types of voter security laws that that have been passed, 154 of those laws over the last three cycles. So it's a lot more secure election now than we've had probably any time in our lifetime, and unless you're old enough for me to go back to, you know, Reagan and and Nixon and guys like that. Uh but in in the mod more modern era, this is the best we've had in a long time. So that coupled with the fact that there's a lot of voter ballot initiatives on the ballot that I think are going to draw a lot of conservative people out in some very blue states that may change the outcome in those states. Because if those people go vote for those ballot initiatives, like no men in women's sports, that's on the ballot in some of those blue states as well. And no transgender mutilation uh surgeries. I mean, those are like 70, 30, 80, 20, 90, 10 kind of issues. And if those red people in those blue states show up, you may see a very different outcome in what happens in House and Senate races there. So there's a lot of positive things. So do not talk yourself into being depressed, and I can't make a difference, and the laws are always against me, and we always lose. Do not do that. That's self-fulfilling prophecy. You gotta go in, and it's not, I mean, we're gonna go to John Quincy Adams here. He said, duty is ours, results are God's. It's not your responsibility whether you win or lose the ballot initiative or the vote or the candidate. It's your responsibility to vote

Faithfulness Over Cynicism About Results

SPEAKER_02 18:20

and do what you can, and that's what you got to do. So don't let yourself be talked out of voting this election.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Well, Tim, you mentioned discipleship earlier. I mean, that's a discipleship issue right there, just having the mindset of I'm gonna do my duty no matter what it looks like going into it, or even after the results, I'm gonna still do my duty next time. I'm not gonna be, you know, uh talked into not participating because we may or may not win.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Well, Rick, this is something that we've talked about many times in the program, but but because uh we know we're in the middle of early voting, and in fact, today uh early voting starts in Texas, that this it's something worth reminding people again, something that we need to make sure we know so we can encourage our friends. We have a stewardship responsibility. In America, when the founding fathers said we the people, literally putting it at the top of the Constitution, they were identifying who's in charge in America. God has given us the privilege and the responsibility to be the leaders of this nation, to be the kings of America, if you will, or queens, uh, right, depending on if you're a boy or girl, gender does matter. But either way, you are the leader, you are the ruler of America. And just like it would be super silly if someone were the the leader of their home, the leader of their family, and they said, Yeah, but I'm not really gonna lead, you know, now. I don't I don't feel like I need to lead now. If you're the parent and you decide you're not gonna lead your children, if and I mean, go down all of the examples you can think of. This is the reality. We we would never look at somebody that's in a position of leadership and influence. And then when they decide, yeah, I'm kind of tired, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't think it would really matter if I did, I'm not gonna show up. We wouldn't respect that person. We would think they've totally misunderstood their assignment and their calling. And this is the reality as Christians, that we are in a place that the majority of the rest of the world would love the opportunities, the privileges, the blessings and benefits that we get in America. But because we have lived in America so long, for so many Americans, that the blessings have been normalized. They don't recognize they're unique and special. And frankly, in the last several decades in schools, they students have been taught, they've been learning that the blessings and benefits of privileges, the freedoms, the prosperity, the stability, the benevolence of America is not good. Where we're actually fundamentally an evil nation, a flawed nation. And it's done things to discourage the involvement of good people from showing up. And we have to remember that we have a stewardship responsibility that God has called us to be responsible with what God has entrusted to us. And one of the things he we've been entrusted with here in America is our vote. We have to show up, we have to vote. We don't have the privilege or the luxury of sitting out, we don't have the privilege or luxury of being lazy, of feeling like, well, you know, there's not really a good candidate, so I'm gonna sit out. We can go through all of these ideas and examples of why people might push back, but the bottom line is we have a stewardship responsibility to lead in areas where God has given us influence. And one of those areas absolutely is in the election process that we need to choose the right kind of leader. So I would say, yes, regardless of if you are in a blue state or red state, if you're in a state and you know, man, I I I, for example, I'm in you know, some blue state, and there is no chance at all that the candidate I want to win is gonna win. But you know you have a stewardship responsibility, you show up and do the right thing when you read Matthew 25 and Luke 19, and the master shows up at the end of the parable calling all the servants to account. What he says is well done, good and faithful servant. He doesn't say, Well done, good and successful, well done, good and Good and productive and prosperous. He's just faithful. We've been called to be faithful. Now, oftentimes in our faithfulness, it will lead to the productivity, the prosperity, the success that we ultimately want. But God has called us not to be successful always. He's called us to be faithful always. So whether you are in a state where your candidate and your mind has a chance of winning or not, it doesn't matter. You show up. Sometimes it's we are the kid with the lobes and the fish. And you're like, I don't know what you're gonna do with this. I can't imagine how this is gonna pay off. But when that kid submitted to the request, hey, can we use your lobes and fish? And what was not gonna be adequate somehow found its way into the hands of God and God multiplied and there was this incredible miracle done. Yeah, that that's actually a possibility, even in some of these elections. So we can't get caught up in a discouraged, oppressed mindset. We can't be like that the 10 leaders from the 12 that were sent to spy out the land and come back and say, look, like it would be great, but there's just no way that, you know, there were giants. We we were grasshoppers in our own sight. No, be the Joshua and Caleb and say, you know what, there's some giants, but we're gonna show up. We're gonna get after this. Don't let the spirit of discouragement come on you and be found faithful. Be a good steward with what God has given you.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

And let me throw one other thought in there that I think is significant for this election.

Judges The Stakes People Forget

SPEAKER_02 23:28

And I haven't heard anybody cover this. I haven't heard it talked about to any degree, but it it's the consequence of what happens if we lose, like the Senate. The pundits tend to think that Republicans are gonna lose the house in the Senate, but the election hadn't happened yet. That's what they keep saying on TV. We'll see. Here's something I think is is a huge factor, and it is judges, it's federal judges. So Trump, in his six years so far, has appointed a total of 290 judges. Um, there's three Supreme Court justices, 64 Court of Appeals judges, and 219 district court judges. That's 290 total. It's because of that that we're being able to see 27 states introduce bills with the belief that they can get the Ten Commandments back in the classroom. Because of that, Texas and other states have put prayer and Bible back in public schools. But if it stops here, if we lose the Senate, for example, it's estimated that's gonna cost 60 to 100 more federal judges. Now, that's a huge consequence. That would be if if you let the Democrats have the Senate and be able to choose the judges that are going to get confirmed, that is a huge turnaround. And I'd encourage folks, don't forget about the unintended consequences of this. You get caught in on the personalities of the House or Senate or whatever. But there's a lot riding on this in sense of keeping the Senate and getting another 60 to 100 judges, possibly another Supreme Court justice in that period of time as well. I mean, that would so help seal the moral character, the religious character of America as far as public policy goes. And that's something not to forget about when you go vote. And especially when you vote in these Senate races, make sure that you understand if you got a Democrat senator, they're going to vote against virtually every judge Trump sits forth. If you have a Republican senator, even if they're not as conservative as you like, they're they're supporting those judges that Trump's putting forth. And that's the big legacy thing for all of us, not Trump's legacy, that's the

Get Informed And Vote Now

SPEAKER_02 25:32

American legacy.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Well, folks, it's down to the wire. Early voting in almost every state by today, uh, certainly the key states, and you need to know who you're voting for. It needs to be an informed vote. Don't just go in and and and vote for a name that you might recognize from the ads or any of those things. Get a voter guide and study where the candidates stand. You can do it very quickly at ChristianVoterGuide.com. That's ChristianVoterGuide.com. Get those tools, not only for yourself, but your for your friends and family. Guys, any last-minute uh encouragement to our audience to get out there and vote and get their friends to do the same.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Yeah, Rick, just remind everybody: this is an election that will have incredibly significant consequences for the future of America. We are literally determining are we going to live under communists, socialists, and Islamists, or are we going to live under people that believe that there's a God and our rights come from him and government exists to protect those rights? Now, it's not quite that simple, but it basically is. Uh there's not a perfect candidate, but there's candidates that are not communists and socialists, and there's candidates that are choose wisely.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

It sure seems like a simple choice. All right, Christian Voterguide.com. Thanks so much for listening today. You've been listening to the Wallpover Show.