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Breitbart is calling it a "Blunami."

And the political world is shifting again.

What just happened...

To put this in some context, yesterday's results are similar in scope to the Tea Party revolt of 2010. So let's be sober in our assessment -- the 2010 Tea Party Revolt was real and impacted American politics for years. This Blunami is real and it will impact American politics for years.

The shift is real, and it traveled into 2024 Red States like Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina and Texas.

Consider the voting shifts in these Iowa counties that are not traditional Democrat strongholdd areas:

Texas saw even more seismic shifts -- over 23 points from President Trump's win just two years ago. On average, Ohio counties swung more than 10 points to the Left.

But why?

Why the shift?

In short, the economy. Very clearly, Americans voted with their pocketbooks. Gas prices are high. Everything is more expensive. Millions took a hit on the ObamaCare fight. And what about the tariffs.

Think of this...

When you went to the polls in 2024, were you hoping for a massive increase in tariffs? Had you even thought about tarrifs?

Tariffs as a "campaign pledge" was hardly mentioned, yet almost immediately after the inauguration, President Trump doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on tariffs. I'm not even arguing whether he was right or wrong. Tariffs were NEW and therefore an easy political target of blame for high prices.

And then there's the Iran War.

The Iran War was President Trump's most damaging broken promise. Trump ran on not entangling America in wars. He was going to finally break the Neocon stranglehold on the GOP and the "forever wars" posture that the UniParty has maintained for decades. And then the bombs started flying. And people drew a direct line from the Iran war to their hurting pocketbooks.

America "on the verge of fracture"

Just as alarming is the reminder that we live in a very divided country in which about half of your fellow citizens believe the exact opposite of you. As I warned yesterday...

We will wake up tomorrow morning realizing that we live in an ideologically divided nation and that the ideological divide is growing to the point that our nation is on the verge of fracture.

But that said, here's what we shouldn't do...

We shouldn't blame our fellow Americans who voted for a different direction. We want to blame them, but we shouldn't.

Here in Virginia, that's what I want to do. A majority of my neighbors just voted to amend our state constitution to create an abortion right and to give children the right to change their gender without parental consent. I want to be angry at my neighbors. Instead, I should go talk to my neighbors. And here's why...

Seek shalom

I'm reminded of how I felt after Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012. It was a shock. We couldn't believe that America had re-elected Obama. We felt like we were in political exile.

But that next morning, I woke up with hope as I reflected on Jeremiah 29, and the lessons God taught the people in Israel during a time of exile:

Build, plant, bless and pray.

So I wrote one of the most important messages I've ever written to the Grassfire team encouraging us to "thrive in exile." It shifted our thinking. The email even made it to Glenn Beck's desk and he read most of it verbatim on his TV show (more on that here). That email grew into a book and a three-part series of books on thriving.

So this morning, I'm reflecting on the "bless" part of that instruction. In Jeremiah, the words are to "seek the peace" or "seek the shalom" of the city in which you live.

Shalom is a very important concept and goal to keep in mind during difficult times. We can't "weaponize" our neighbors. We have to reach our neighbors.

So let's learn the political lessons from last night:

  • Mandates are very narrow things in a 50/50 divided country;
  • Promises are meant to be kept;
  • Culture is upstream from politics;
  • Our neighbors are not our enemies;
  • We keep building and planting and blessing and praying, no matter what!

For life, liberty and limited government,

Steve Elliott, Grassfire

P.S. We have a handful of the original Thriving In Exile books still in our warehouse. If you would be encouraged by how the lessons of Jeremiah 29 can help you thrive through tough times, go here for a copy.

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