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Why Conservative Ballot Measures Won In Blue States
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The election recap most people heard is missing the part that actually tells you where voters are: the ballot initiatives. We walk through a stack of results that don’t fit the tidy “America just turned progressive” storyline, including measures that protect women’s sports from biological males, statewide voter ID requirements, and constitutional limits on raising taxes. When even deep-blue places approve these kinds of policies, it raises a serious question: did voters embrace a leftward agenda, or did they simply reject certain candidates while keeping more conservative guardrails in place?
Then we dig into the cognitive dissonance that drives everyone nuts, how people can vote for conservative policies and still send lawmakers to office who oppose them. Our takeaway is blunt: too many voters treat politics like an individual sport and ignore that parties operate like teams with platforms, leadership, and marching orders. If you want fewer surprises, you have to read the playbook, not just the personality.
We also share genuinely encouraging updates from culture and the courts. The Ninth Circuit delivers a major win for common sense by confirming federal officers can use non-lethal crowd control to restore order without waiting to be assaulted. We highlight new data showing teen gender identification trends are dropping after years of rapid growth, and we celebrate a visible faith moment when Patriots quarterback Drake May shares Proverbs 16:9 on-air and explains why trusting God’s plan matters. Finally, we talk economics, including jobless claims hitting the lowest level since 1959 and what that means for the bigger picture.
If you like sharp analysis paired with real optimism, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find Good News Friday.
Good News Friday Kickoff
Rick GreenThis is the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's good news Friday. Everybody's looking for some good news right now. There is, in fact, a lot of good news out there. And David and Tim Barton have been collecting that good news for us. You're going to be sharing it with us today on the program. If you want more good news, it's at our website, wallbudders.Show. Just go back and look at some of those previous Friday programs or go to wallbuilders.com, get you some good materials. And by the way, now's a good time to do some Christmas shopping. Start thinking about all those people in your life that need just a little bit of freedom for Christmas. You can get some great guests right there at wallbudders.com. Good news Friday, guys. Let's jump
Ballot Measures Buck The Narrative
Rick Greenin. David Barton with the first piece of good news.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm starting with a little bit more on the post-election analysis. Uh, this goes to the fact that right now the election, uh particularly at the federal level, is being portrayed as one of the Democrats' best election day that they've had in decades. And by numbers, it is. They really picked it up. Now, we've talked about the fact that it's not as wide as they think it is in many ways, that there were a lot of really, really close races, and so many of those close races, most of them broke their way. And so on on paper, it looks like they've got a massive amount, although it may not be as strong as they say. And I think they're really misreading it. Uh, they're aggressive now on wanting to just dump everything that was. I know in Texas they pre-filed a thousand bills getting ready for the legislative session. Uh, they're kind of organizing themselves to take it from Republicans in the House. And so as they're getting organized and and shifting from uh Republican leadership at the state level to Democrat leadership, they're getting all these things rolled out. But here's what stands out to me as really significant, and I think this is where they're not reading the tea leaves right, is when you look particularly at the ballot initiatives that happen, especially in the blue states, and how those ballot initiatives were were generally very conservative, although the results for the political people were very liberal, which suggests to me that the voters aren't necessarily as liberal as their leaders. They were just more rejecting the Republican stuff that had been there, not necessarily endorsing what's there. But I think the Democrats have read that as an endorsement and are going to go full speed ahead, which may hurt them. But here we go. So looking in and particularly three three things, uh the state ballot initiatives on transgender policies, on voter IDs, and on income taxes. And each of those have a very liberal and very conservative position. It turns out that in all of those, they went very conservative at the state level with all those measures. And so there were four states that uh had measures to bar men from participating in women's sports. Um uh Arizona passed it with 59% of the vote. Essentially, it's a 60-40 vote, which in in most political, um most political terms would be a drubbing. If somebody got beat 60-40 for house or governor or anything else, that's a political drubbing. So uh the the Arizona said, hey, by 59% margin, we don't want men and women's sports, although they made a lot of Democrat games in the state with several Republicans losing, congressmen as well. Colorado, which may be as progressive as any blue state in the nation, it's got to be right up there with Rhode Island and some of those other states. Um, it had 52% support from Coloradans to we do not want men and women's sports. Uh Nebraska, it was 68%. And Nebraska, they had several political sitbacks as far as Republicans go. And then Washington State, uh, Washington State, which is one of the super aggressive states, they passed no men in women's sports with a 57% vote, so 5743. Those really are our significant ones. And in Washington State, uh, they even require that the students, if you're going to compete in girls' sports, you have to submit documentation from a healthcare provider verifying that you are a female as defined by biological means. So, I mean, they they went to the point in Washington State of saying not only do we want no men and women's sports, we want verification that there's no men and women's sports. Uh, Colorado going on to trans Colorado, they passed a ban on transgender surgeries uh for minors and provided no government funding for transgender surgeries. So, again, a very progressive blue state taking a really conservative position on that. And then with voter ID in Nevada and North Carolina and Ohio, uh, they all passed constitutional amendments requiring voter ID. And Nevada went very blue in this election. North Carolina was one of the five states that took a drubbing uh Republicans did, and Ohio was one of those five states as well. So those three states were very blue in this election except requiring voter ID. Uh and and in in Nevada it was 62 percent, and they require a in-person voting, and you you have to have a Social Security number or something else for mail-in ballots. So they really want verification. And in South in North Carolina it was 60 percent, in Ohio it was 65 percent, uh, requiring photo ID when you go to vote. And then finally, in uh in Iowa and North Carolina, they approved constitutional amendments limiting the ability for lawmakers to raise taxes. Uh they can't they they put a limit on it. In North Carolina, 62 percent of voters said, hey, we want a cap on personal and corporate taxes. We want that cap dropped from 7% to 3.5%. So they cut their essential essentially the state tax rate in half. So those are all very, very conservative results. And again, that's why I look at stuff like that and say, hey, there was a lot of conservatism in those voters. They were just dissatisfied with where Republicans were, but they're not necessarily endorsing what Democrats are wanting to do. And what I'm seeing right now is the Democrats are charging full speed ahead to completely repudiate everything that appears to be conservative. So we'll see how that works out. It may not bode well for them in a couple years when they come back and have to answer for all the things they're doing, but we'll see. But that's still the good news on all the ballot initiatives that went the right way. And David, that was a ton of good news
Why Voters Split The Ticket
SPEAKER_00in there.
Rick GreenWe could spend all day just on those initiatives. I do have to ask you though, like, what is the cognitive dissonance here? Like, how do how do voters say we're for all these things that you just listed, but we're going to elect people who hate all of these things that we just listed and gonna try to reverse those things? Are we just not running good campaigns to educate them about that? Are the people just not paying attention? Like, what is your thought on the just the the real you know, give like the brain is not connected on both of those things, but they're voting on both of those things.
SPEAKER_00Well, you asked the question, so I'm gonna open it up because I I think that voters by and large are very unaware of how politics work. And when it comes to this, I think we mentioned this a couple days ago, but you're voting for a team. You're not voting for an individual. And and people in Texas said, hey, Taller Rico, he's such a nice guy. Paxson had an affair. No, no, no. Taller Rico is on the Democrat team. He will do exactly what Schumer tells him to do. It doesn't matter if he's a nice guy, it doesn't matter if we think he's less radical than maybe somebody from Maine or Washington State. He is going to vote as part of the team. And that's what voters don't get. They think that when they send individuals to Congress, they're sending individuals. They're not. They're sending players on a team. We kind of talked about the fact that Dallas Cowboy, they have a real notable name as a team, and they've got some really stars on their team, but they're a terrible team overall. And the fact that you've got a desk Dak Prescott quarterback who's broken all the cowboy records for quarterback, and you have a lousy, lousy defense and a really poor team, it doesn't matter that you have some key players that people like, and I think that's the Talo Ricos and others. And so I think a lot of that is people do not understand that this is not an individual sport when you're in politics. This is a team sport and you're voting for a team. Therefore, read the platforms of the two parties. That's how best you know what's going to happen. Not whether you like the guys, not whether Talo Rico spends $400 million in ads or anything else. He's on a team. Read the platform. That tells you what the playbook is for that team. And I I hold voters to that because they should have done that, should have known that, but I also hold education to that because we don't teach civics or government anymore and don't even understand that. So that would be my long answer to your short question. I think there's two or three factors in there, but it all goes to knowledge and voters independently are going to have to do some work on their own to get back on top of this.
Rick GreenWell, Tim, I'm very concerned about your Dad because, you know, I'm I'm totally okay with being very adamant and passionate about, you know, like abortion is wrong, it's murder. But to hear that passion about how bad the Cowboys defense is from a Dallas Cowboys fan makes me very concerned. Now now I'm worried about him being a little bit schizophrenic, like these voters.
Tim BartonWell, and you know, how dare you say the obvious true things out loud? Uh just because they're the worst defense in the NFL this year, like why would you say that? Right. Uh I mean that but that that is the reality. There's irony in it, but it's a reality. People voted for Democrats thinking that they would get better gas and grocery prices. And you have to be so disconnected from reality because in what states that Democrats control are gas and groceries cheaper? It's it's more expensive in California, it's more expensive in Illinois, it's more expensive in New York. Literally, every place they control, it becomes more expensive. It makes no sense, but that is the disconnection, unfortunately, that so many voters have. They vote for someone that they like their personality, they they like the messaging and marketing, but they're not thinking about number one, the team they represent or what policies that team is promoting. And that's your point, with even a Talo Rico, which by the way, even if people paid a little more attention to what he said and was promoting, that the guy is like biblically defined heretic rejecting basic biblical truth and doctrines, repackaging who Jesus actually is, making him to be something he is not. That that's what a heresy is, and what a heretic is is what James Talerico is doing. But not to digress, uh, that this is a disconnection that we will work very hard over the rest of our lives. I was gonna say the next two years, but really it's gonna be as long as God has us on this earth, we are gonna work to introduce people to Jesus, number one, and number two, to disciple them according to the principles of the word of God in the Bible, and then number three, helping connect the dot of American history to understand when people knew Jesus and followed the Bible, that history just worked out way better, and America is a prime example of that.
Rick GreenAmen. Amen. Well, all right, brother, would before we go to break, you got to get at least one piece of good news off your stack.
Ninth Circuit Restores Crowd Control
Tim BartonAbsolutely. And guys, this one is coming from the Ninth Circuit, uh, which we have talked about a lot in in previous years, how the Ninth Circuit, uh, the Court of Appeals, they they used to be known as the Ninth Circus because they were very liberal, all kinds of crazy rulings. Um, President Trump was able to appoint a lot of judges that uh changed some of the makeup of that court. This one is is really fascinating to me. It dealt with a case that came out on in February where U.S. District Judge Michael Simon had said federal officers, so DHS officers, but federal officers could not use munitions such as tear grass, tear gas on people around buildings unless the target of the munitions, the people that they're dealing with, posed an imminent threat of physical harm to law enforcement officers or other persons. So if they're just coming through like burning down buildings, you know, tearing up cars, you can't use tear gas on those kinds of people. That that literally, this is what this district judge said that it was unlawful for them to use tear grass, tear gas to break up these these crowds that you know CNN might have said was mostly peaceful as buildings are on fire behind them. Like it's that kind of crowded moment. So the good news is on November 10th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, they said under our precedent, law enforcement agents may use non-lethal force to clear crowds and restore order, they need not wait until they face an imminent threat of physical harm. Now, this is seems like one of the most logical common sense things. If you have an unruly mob, you don't have to wait until they physically assault an officer. If they are damaging property, if they're not following lawful orders, tear gas can be utilized to disperse the crowd, except that federal judge said no. U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit came back and said, Yeah, that's totally wrong. But here's where it gets really fun. So they explained on November 10th in this decision. The record also does not support the plaintiff's claim that the federal agents retaliated against them for exercising their First Amendment rights. Now let's just pause for a second and contemplate. The plaintiff said that the officers specifically shot tear gas at us. We were just the peaceful protesters, and and also some journalists that happened to have this tear gas they were navigating and dealing with when these canisters were thrown into the crowd. And what what what come to find out is in 2025 and 2026, when some of these quote unquote peaceful protests were happening, that these individuals who were peacefully protesting, they were with crowds that were unruly, that were damaging and destroying property. But their argument was, well, we weren't doing bad things. Now other people might have been, but we weren't. So you weren't supposed to use tear gas on us, only on the other people. The irony behind this is just so special that you're in a crowd that by definition is destroying property, and that crowd gets tear gassed, and you want to sue somebody because you said I didn't do anything wrong and got tear gassed. Hey, bud, who were you hanging out with? Were you walking with the bad crowd? The Bible actually speaks to this that uh he who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. It seems like you're in the second category. It seems like you were the companion of fools and you suffered harm. Anyway, not to digress, the really good news is that the majority noted the use of crowd control devices appeared to come after the crowd had barricaded officers inside a facility, destroyed cameras there, hurled rocks, glass, and metal at officers, and shown lasers at officers' eyes. It was only after that they deployed the gas. So the Ninth Circuit was like, Yeah, guys, this is crazy. Where they totally can use tear gas, and you don't have to wait until someone is being intentionally assaulted. All of this to say is great news that even in the midst of as we're processing all of the chaos from the election, trying to understand uh the analytics and the data from it. The good news is, guys, the Ninth Circuit has not lost all sanity, and they're acknowledging officers could use tear gas to disperse an unruly crowd. They don't have to wait until they are physically assaulted, and this overturns a U.S. district judge who had ruled differently in February. So, overall, good news coming from the Ninth Circuit, dealing specifically in this case with the city of Portland. So, uh, for all the crazy people in in Portland, uh tear gas is headed your way.
Rick GreenI think that I've never thought about that verse is perfect, man. A companion of fools suffers harm. Absolutely perfect. Now, if it had been once, maybe even if it had been twice, I would have left it alone. But because it was three times, as we go to break, um, I'm thinking about tear grass instead of tear gas, Tim. And I'm wondering how the vote went, David, on the med um, what was it, medical marijuana, some marijuana, some form of grass, not tear grass, but but tear gas. I'm sorry, it was grass that was being voted on marijuana in some of these states, right, David? I think those went the wrong way.
Tim BartonI just want to point out, Rick, that was hard even for you to say. So I don't know why tear gas was a hard thing. I literally was reading the article that it like this in front of my face, and I still was struggling to say tear gas. I don't know why. Uh, but Dad, maybe medical marijuana uh could distract from the whole scenario.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it would at least calm you guys down anyway. You would be a lot more mellow about it when you made the mistake. Hey, by the way, that is one of the things that really strikes me is in the pre-filing in Texas, uh, they have filed for open marijuana at high, high percentage levels, strong marijuana. And you uh I I don't know, Democrats should know Texas better than that. Uh that we're not there yet. So it's just again, this first article, they're taking a lot of freedoms that they think that they have a mandate to do. I think they're gonna get surprised when it doesn't go their way, but we'll see.
Rick GreenWell, do you remember on election night when Tim said on set uh when we were getting all the results? And Tim goes, you remember this, Tim? You said you said they're just not here's the good news, guys, they're not gonna be able to help themselves. They can't help their crazy. They're gonna they're gonna do all these crazy things, and we're already seeing it happen for sure. Okay, sorry guys, gotta take the
How To Share And Subscribe
Rick Greenbreak now. I got too caught up in the tear grass. We'll be right back on the WallBuilder show. Hey friends, Rick Green from the WallBuilder 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 WallBulder's 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, wallbuilders.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 back to the WallBuilders show. It's Good News Friday, sending you into the weekend with some of these good news items back over to David for the next piece of good news.
Teen Gender Identification Trends Reverse
SPEAKER_00Well, this deals with uh identification, gender fluidity, high school students, what they've been taught, what they believe for a number of years, going back to 2015, particularly up to 20 uh 21, over that six-year period, the number of girls identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual rose by 128%. For boys, it went up 99% in eight years. So is that we're getting all this in school? Yeah, that's what I am. I'm whatever you said I am. And so they're getting all this presentation of other genders, and that's what they became. But now those numbers are plummeting. Uh in the last four years, those numbers are in free fall, and it's interesting, uh, largely driven by girls. Girls are actually figuring out that they are girls and we're not gender fluid and other things. And so it's it's dropped significantly. So for guys, the the percentage who who feel like they're they're not male is about 7%, but for girls, it's still at 22%. They went really high, they've come down a long way, but they're still at at a rate three times higher than where the guys are. But the good news is that after years and years of being fed this stuff in school, those numbers are starting to plummet and have plummeted now for the last several years, moving in the right direction. That's that's good, that's healthy.
Rick GreenTim, next piece of good news from you, man.
Drake May Quotes Proverbs On Air
Tim BartonWell, guys, this is uh another example of an athlete pointing people to the Bible, highlighting his faith, uh, speaking out as a Christian. This one is from the Patriots quarterback Drake May. Uh a couple weeks ago, the Patriots had a Monday night football game, and Drake May had a really good game. He went 16 of 20 uh passing for 199 yards, two touchdowns. And at the end of the game, he was being interviewed by a news station, and apparently that they did live callers. And there was a caller that called in from Rhode Island and asked him to name his favorite Bible verse and then explain his reasoning. Now, I really feel like this might have been a plant question only because of how quickly he responded. Uh, maybe he was like, Hey, somebody asked me tonight, what's my favorite Bible verse, right? Because he said, Man, here we go, Proverbs 16, 9. And he jumps into it. He says, The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. He then goes on to explain why the verse was so important to him, uh saying it reminded him of uh trusting in God's plan, not his own. He said, I think it's just so much in life. We're kind of trying to plan and trying to see things and pray for things and trying to see things in our life happen. And really, it's the Lord doing the work and just trusting in him and trusting his plan. Uh, as he was saying this, uh, the host, Rich Schertenliebe, said, I'm a lifelong Catholic. I don't think I've ever heard that one. That's a good one. I like that. Now, also, that's really funny. Um, like you might not want to throw yourself under the bus, like, hey, I've been a Christian my whole life. I've never heard that Bible verse. Uh, you know, there that I In fairness, guys, let me back up. There are times that we find a verse and we're like, I don't know how I've never noticed this, usually in connection, but I do think it's funny. The host was like, Man, I've never heard that. That's an amazing verse. And then he says, Now, what verse was that again? And so May replies, Proverbs 16, 9. And also, in fairness, maybe he's being the good host. And like when Rick Green pretends like he didn't know the answer, and he's like, David Tim, what do you think the answer is? And we're like, Well, thanks, Rick. Uh, even though we know Rick already knew that answer, uh, I love the fact that this host plays and leans into this and says, Man, tell me that verse again. That is such a good one. And he says, I'll have to write that down. That's a very, very good one. The fact that May has this great game, and then the interview, a caller asks a question, he's pumped about it, answers quickly. The host follows along. Guys, there is a faith comeback happening in America right now. There's a faith comeback happening, highlighted again in the sports world. So many noted athletes speaking boldly about their faith. I am encouraged to see this. Uh, really good news. And so, uh, congratulations, we appreciate it to Drake May, the quarterback for the New England Patriots.
Rick GreenWell, first of all, Tim, I can't believe you think I actually know the answers to those questions. That that makes me feel uh actually a little better, but that obviously means that that I followed David's advice. He always told me that proverb about, you know, basically keep your mouth shut and people won't know whether or not you're a fool. And instead of opening it, so that it makes it a lot easier for me to just always not let people know whether or not I know the answer to those questions. So anyway, no, good stuff, good stuff. And I've noticed a lot of that, Tim. I know you've you've shared a few of those over the last year of these different athletes, but man, it's more and more, and it's that boldness factor. It's a it's the whole courage is contagious thing. All right, David, have we got time for one more, man?
SPEAKER_00Take us into the weekend with a good one.
Jobless Claims Hit 1959 Low
SPEAKER_00Well, this is one that Republicans left on the table at the election. Uh the report is out, we now have the lowest jobless claim since 1959. So as bad as everybody thought the economy was, as much as the Democrats told them how how high priced everything was, the over the last 12 months, less than 1% of Americans were laid off, but jobless claims are now down to the lowest they've been since 1959. You know, we talked about the fact that last year had the lowest crime rate since 1900. There were so many things that were out there that could have been talked about that weren't being talked about. And this is another one. They, you know, the Bible says one side sounds good till you hear the other. And one side was presented by the Democrats and Republicans did a really lousy job of presenting anything to counter that on the other side, and they paid a price for it, no question.
Tim BartonWell, and Dad, it reminds me too. I I've seen this clip a few times now. President Trump in September was interviewed, and and he said, Hey, just so you know, gas prices, they're gonna start falling. They said, Well, we'll be by the election. He said, No, I don't think it's gonna happen, but but maybe it's actually probably right after the election, they're gonna be falling. It's gonna be back in two dollars a gallon. And guys, the the last week or two, gas prices are falling. It is getting so much better. And Dad, to this point, it doesn't mean right now that that everybody all of a sudden has this incredible abundance and their paychecks are bigger and their their dollars are going further. No, inflation is still a thing. It's for for most families, gas and groceries is still a challenge. But, Dad, to your point, most people have only heard the prevailing narrative and they don't recognize that that there is a lot of strength in the economy, that there are more people finding jobs, that gas prices are going down. And it didn't happen because all of a sudden Democrats won some elections. This is stuff that literally President Trump was saying was gonna happen back in September. It is coming to fruition now. And then to your point, Dad, you said it's the lowest, the lowest jobless claim since when? 1959. So uh you could tell me about that. I wasn't there, but that that seems like a good thing. Uh, that we are moving that direction, that more and more jobs are available for people willing to work. That is really good news.
Weekend Charge And Final Takeaways
Rick GreenJust for the record, I wasn't there either. This was one time that the date was actually past me as well. So, anyway, uh good stuff, guys. And and I do think there was a lot of the uh mass you know psychosis almost where you're just seeing it in the in the social media feed over and over and over again about how bad things are, and you and you start being focused on the bad and not any of the good definitely played a role. And I think, David, you're right, they just didn't didn't sell the good stuff, didn't talk about it enough. Uh, but the good news is that it is in fact the lowest uh since 1959, and we should celebrate that. And folks, get out there and work hard. Have a great weekend, but be thinking about what you're gonna do next week to help save the country. We are not slowing down one bit. Have a fantastic weekend. Thanks for listening to the Wallpover show.
