Everyone, including both Democrats and Republicans, was expecting the Republicans to do well in the midterm elections. Even the press and pundits after months of wishful thinking came around to saying it would be a tough night for Democrats. History also indicates the party out of power does better in the midterms, so expectations for Republicans to take both the House and Senate were fairly high. But here we are a week after the election and we still don’t know the results! The Republicans may have barely taken the House and Democrats may take the Senate?!

By every measure, life is much worse for the average American under Biden, Democrat policies are failing miserably everywhere, and Democrats are doubling down on insane initiatives absolutely diametrically opposed to traditional American values. This midterm should have blown Democrats out of office across the land. There were some remarkable Republican wins in normally blue areas, but overall the “red wave” was no more than a ripple. With Democrats literally losing on every issue that voters supposedly cared about, how is this even possible?!

Election integrity is still an issue and it was quite odd that Biden warned Americans a week before the election that it may take a week or two to tally the votes and know the results. Seriously?! With all of our automation and technology, we can no longer count millions of votes on Election Day like we have for the past century?! Is it just coincidence that it’s only battleground states that need more time to count the votes?! And is it just coincidence that wherever they need extra time to count votes, the votes just keep coming in until the Democrat wins?!

It’s all too obvious to dismiss. There are certainly election irregularities in these slow counting states that must be investigated, the electoral process corrected, and confidence restored. There may well have been some cheating, but the election should have never been this close. So, it’s a mistake to blame these bizarre results on voter fraud.

Based on the results of this midterm election thus far, we must wonder whether conservatives have lost touch with Americans. The Democrat Media Complex has a huge echo chamber and a monopoly on most news and social media, so contrary to the polls, do Americans not really care about inflation eroding their purchasing power? High energy prices? Illegal immigration? Rampant crime? New foreign entanglements? Failing education?

Could it be that a majority of voters are still trapped in the Democrat Media Complex and actually unaware of these grave challenges? Or, is it simple resignation that nothing can be done? Or, is it plain apathy? Mitt Romney may have spoken truth before its time in 2012 when he wondered if we were reaching the “tipping point” where more people were drawing benefits than paying taxes. It appears we have zipped past the tipping point because “student loan forgiveness” apparently bought more votes than anyone imagined.

The real issue is that we are seeing more Americans less concerned with liberty and their constitutional rights and more concerned with their benefits from the government. Freedom still gets lip service, but few are interested in the accountability and responsibility that comes with freedom. Apparent majorities are more worried about their healthcare, social security, and whatever else they can get for free from the government. Alexis De Tocqueville noted that once the populace thinks they can vote themselves benefits from the treasury, democracy will not last much longer. Tyrants love a people who seek dependency because it makes servitude easy and voluntary.

The most disturbing revelation from this election is that large numbers of women supposedly abandoned the Republican Party because they wanted to preserve abortion. That’s really hard to fathom for conservatives, but it’s perhaps the most instructive development from this election. If true, that means some large swath of women are more concerned about preserving the ability to murder innocent lives to conveniently avoid the consequences of their life choices. Nothing is more selfish, but that is precisely indicative of a growing generation.

More and more Americans are only concerned about themselves and their desires. For many, it’s not about the First or Second Amendments anymore. It’s about legalizing drugs, expanding gambling, removing barriers to whatever sexual perversions one can imagine, and in general what can we get for free. Most of the younger generation is uninterested in having children because it interferes with fun; they are self-absorbed and not concerned with what they pass on as long as they have enough.

Perhaps it has been too long since Americans truly faced adversity or scarcity because our inalienable rights don’t seem very important anymore. There are a lot of factors at work, but mostly we have failed to teach our children about our majestic heritage and the vital importance of our constitutional rights. Pop culture has eclipsed American culture, so we likely will not notice until our freedom is lost and it’s too late.

“But realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy” (2 Timothy 3:1-2).

Pete Riehm is a conservative activist and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.