The 2026 midterms are approaching, and there is growing pressure on conservatives to sit out elections, reject Republican candidates, or pursue some kind of political accelerationism because Republicans have not accomplished everything conservatives hoped they would.
In this episode of Conversations That Matter, I make the case for why Christian conservatives should generally vote Republican in the midterms, while also explaining why voting is not a substitute for the much more important work of Christian discipleship and social renewal.
The key distinction is between practical politics and pragmatism. Pragmatism means changing your moral standards to achieve a desired political outcome. Practical judgment means recognizing the political circumstances you actually inhabit and using the tools available to you without changing your moral convictions. As I argue in the episode, morality does not change, but political circumstances and available options do.
I also discuss the temptation to abandon the Republican Party because it is imperfect, the dangers of accelerationism, what the experience of Europe can teach us, my own decision not to vote for Donald Trump in 2016, and why that calculation would be different in a competitive state.
Finally, I look at what the Trump administration and the MAGA movement have actually accomplished on issues including immigration, DEI, abortion, and foreign policy, and argue that conservatives should consider whether to build on those gains rather than simply destroy the political apparatus because it has not delivered everything they wanted.
The question is not whether Republicans are perfect. The question is what political options actually exist, what can be accomplished through them, and how Christians should exercise stewardship in the circumstances God has given us.
00:00 The Midterm Question
01:05 Voting Is Not Social Renewal
03:00 What Political Options Do We Actually Have?
05:45 Practical Politics vs. Pragmatism
09:00 The Problem With Accelerationism
10:25 Why Build on MAGA?
16:00 Stewardship and Imperfect Political Options
25:45 What Has MAGA Actually Accomplished?
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