Republicans were decimated in the midterm elections. The takeaway from most seems to be, in the words of Bill Clinton, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Obviously, it is about the economy … but there’s also a deeper takeaway.

People make voting decisions based on what’s going on in their homes. Complaining about how “everything is so expensive these days” is a bit like chatting about the weather now. Put simply, it’s at the top of everyone’s minds. Expenses are also a more palpable hardship for the average person than issues like “open borders,” “trans athletes,” or “woke.”

Discontent with our nation’s foreign policy drove Trump’s wins in 2016 and 2024, but it wasn’t because most of the country was reading Patrick Buchanan and forming a coherent nationalist foreign policy opinion from his information. No, people were simply upset that politicians were wasting our money and our men on wars whose benefits were either nonexistent or extremely marginal.

The same was true this year. Republicans were voted out because the Iran War was costing Americans a lot of money, not because they hold some principled objection to “forever wars” or “Israel wars” or whatever ideologues care about when it comes to foreign policy.

Exit polls show that 74% of voters said the Iran War was a crucial or major factor in their voting decision. I would guess that few in this percentage even know what a “Neocon” is, yet 62% of them issued a round rebuke to them. Why? Because the war hurt their pocketbooks, and people are going to vote according to what is most important to their homes.

Elections will continue oscillating between who’s not in charge of a failing economy until time itself ends … that is, unless voters alter their notions of what is most important to them. Either way, elections will always be decided by what is affecting the home front. Few actually care that Riley Gaines was passed up for the win in a swimming competition against a biological male if they’re paying $5 a gallon for gas. No one actually cares that the blue team is just as devoted to “forever wars” when they are in power, if the price of ground beef under the red team has turned burger night into a luxury.

This is not to downplay the economic concerns of Americans or to let Republicans and the Trump administration off the hook for the fantastic blunder of the Iran War. But Democrats will be able to win the culture war by simply running progressive candidates who promise low prices as long as Americans only care about the prices.

A hypothetical President Muhammed won’t happen once Americans decide Sharia Law is better than the Constitution. Sure, a larger majority of Americans are starting to become more comfortable with Muslim culture and religion, and that’s a massive problem that will lead to a fundamental shift in the American way of life, but progressives aren’t banking on changing American minds about Sharia Law in order to get President Muhammed. They’re simply banking on them not caring, then casting President Muhammed as the only answer to lower gas costs, cheaper meat, and the ability to afford flying your family for summer vacation again.

It’s up to those of us who do care to work on the hearts and minds of those who don’t and make protecting the cultural makeup of our country as important to the average person as protecting their paycheck. What we do on the home front as dads, moms, husbands, wives, friends, pastors, and employees has never been more important.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. 

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