(Updated December 8, 2016 with the final count)

Sad about California’s election results? I am, mostly.

But to avoid confusion and depression, it’s important for us to understand WHY the election turned out the way it did. Then we’re less likely to let our love grow cold.

Here are my thoughts:

Most Californians have an identity problem

Instead of going with evidence, logic, the Savior of the world Jesus Christ, and the written word of God (the Bible), most Californians consciously or unconsciously have competing “identities” and conflicting “standards.”

• They’re Democrats before they’re “Christian”
• They’re union members or “union families” who obey their union bosses
• They vote according to race or looks (not according to good public policies)
• They do what “feels right” to them (not what is right)
• They do what pleases others (but not pleasing God)

These false “identities” rival and replace being an American, a constitutionalist, a person devoted to logic and evidence, and even a biblical Christian.

In light of God’s 1st Commandment against worshiping any other “gods” and His 2nd Commandment prohibiting serving “images” of things we worship, these false identities that people create in their minds compete with God’s word, exacerbate bad government and its harmful laws, and become idolatries of the heart.

Most Californians don’t know who they are, why they’re here, where they came from, or where they’re going. No wonder “we” voted that way. Too many Californians think they’re “under God,” but have become slaves to their own foolishness and fancies. This is why our state is no longer blessed, but is inheriting the wind.

Most Californians have a mental block

Unwilling to think critically, they just “feel” their way along. Yes, the government schools and the entertainment media have been very successful at dumbing-down people and promoting moral relativism (self-idolatry). So instead of finding God’s direction for belief and behavior in the Bible, they become disinterested in moral values or at least disinterested in a Biblical standard for decisions.

The result is like a drugged, numbed person who is:

• disinterested in their Creator God
• disinterested in clear Biblical standards
• disinterested in honestly contemplating their sins
• disinterested of critical thinking based on evidence
• disinterested in studying a proper role of government
• disinterested in knowing how we get a good economy

And because of this godlessness, ignorance, and idolatry, ONLY issues and messages that either MATCH the most basic of common human values, OR issues and messages that SUPERSEDE these false identities, AND ONLY what people CARE TO UNDERSTAND, will be popular and win on Election Day. It’s as though going beyond one’s “gut reaction,” and thinking about and studying up on a new issue, is unacceptably painful.

Example: Murder on the ballot

Victims of violent crime, or those who’ve been affected by it, or those who’ve been taught the most elementary, anti-crime values of local TV newscasts, are against murder. Indeed, the broad majority of voters in California are against murder and want it stopped.

Yet Californians are split on HOW to stop murder (because this involves critical thinking). However, a slim majority of voters still believe in the time-honored standard of the death penalty as the way to definitely prevent murderers from killing again, and to send a strong message to would-be murderers (primarily boys and young men) that they can’t get away with murder.

This is why Prop. 62 eliminating the death penalty lost on a close vote (46.8% YES versus 53.2% NO). And it’s why Prop. 66 streamlining the death penalty process, making it more likely to execute murderers, won on a closer vote (51.1% YES versus 48.9% NO).

Too many conservatives stayed home

You must also factor in the SMALLER NUMBER OF CONSERVATIVE VOTES in California this election. Consider that there was no Republican or conservative running for statewide office in the U.S. Senate race to replace liberal Democrat Barbara Boxer. No unified “top of the ticket” to attract conservatives; no “coattails effect” helping “down-ticket” pro-family candidates.

And also consider that Donald Trump had divided moral conservatives. There were Republicans with generally conservative values who didn’t vote for President and some conservatives didn’t vote at all. With all the votes counted, Trump received 31.8% of Californians’ votes for president, compared to 37.1% for Romney in 2012 and 37.0% for McCain in 2008 (Trump received 356,146 fewer votes than Romney and 527,971 fewer votes than McCain). Having at least the votes of Romney and McCain would have brought out more conservatives, probably changing the outcomes of some propositions and district contests.

The relatively weak conservative turnout also helps explain why Republicans lost 3 seats in the State Assembly, lost 1 seat in the State Senate, and didn’t pick up any California congressional seats. (The 3 GOP assemblymembers who lost had voted for the “LGBT” agenda, they first “lost” votes from principled conservatives.)

On the death penalty measures, you must also factor in that California’s law enforcement unions and spokespersons were united in favor of Prop. 66 and against Prop. 62. Their money and public messages helped generate more votes from Californians who categorically respect the color of authority.

But Californians got it wrong on nearly every other proposition on the ballot.

• They didn’t understand that marijuana legalization harms people, especially teenagers and pre-teens who will become addicts.
• They didn’t understand that higher taxes on the wealthy and on cigarette smokers hurts the economy and promotes bigger, badder government.
• They didn’t understand that teaching foreign-born children IN ENGLISH is the proven way to gain English proficiency and promote cultural unity.
• They didn’t understand that ammunition doesn’t commit crimes, but sinful people do.
• They didn’t understand that plastic bags from grocery stores are not an environmental hazard but a helpful, sanitary tool for most families.
• And they didn’t understand that when the government or special interests demand more money, that’s tantamount to deceit and theft.

On marijuana legalization, SaveCalifornia.com and our faithful donors reached 1,487,401 potential voters via Facebook ads that featured our powerful 86-second video and our website MarijuanaHarmsFamilies.com.

But the non-thinking, morally-relativistic majority was besieged with tens of millions of dollars of ads that deceitfully urged them to legalize pot. And the majority of voters (57.1% YES versus 42.9% NO — a difference of nearly 2 million votes) bought hook, line, and sinker the “toleration” message that what’s risky or even harmful must be “accepted.” They didn’t realize that Prop. 64 will ruin children, make roads more dangerous, make life stinkier, and usher in a myriad of unexpected, negative consequences.

Sadly, younger Americans are deluded about the harm of today’s pot, so highly-potent marijuana wasn’t just legalized in California, but also in Nevada and Massachusetts. In my opinion, marijuana promotion to children is the most grievous thing that happened on Election Day 2016. As the famous Negro College Fund ad says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

My advice for believers in God and believers in moral values: Choose to learn to reach more people to educate them on why moral standards benefit everybody, why big government and high taxes and fees are bad, and why reading, studying, and critical thinking is essential for a free society.

You can love God and love people by learning how to reach hearts and minds by creating simple websites, doing cost-effective web ads, making and distributing flyers, and helping stimulate people to think about the difference between good and bad. It’s up to us — and yes, we can learn and grow. Call SaveCalifornia.com at 916-265-5650 if you want to learn to do this.

My advice for parents with Godly or otherwise moral values: If you want to protect your children from mind-altering marijuana, please get them out of the government schools. In Colorado, marijuana legalization plus the negative peer pressure among public school children is causing more addictions among pre-teens and teenagers. Protect your children by homeschooling or enrolling them in a solid church school, and resolve to train your children to critically think about how to apply God’s word to everything.

Have the goal of training up not merely good children, but great children who will become outstanding adults who shine their light to please God and love people. Turn off the TV and internet and read to them (the Bible is great for this), and teach them to love reading and studying. Ask them questions about the proper role of limited government and ask them to research answers and report back to you.

For if John Quincy Adams, our 6th President, could, at 14, be a secretary and translator for the U.S. diplomat to Russia, and then, at 16, be a secretary for his father on a trip to negotiate the 1783 Treaty of Paris, we then can also train our children to have great minds and great actions based on the Great Commandment of Jesus Christ to “love your neighbor as yourself.” You are able and they are able!

Most of all, don’t abandon hope. If you avoid blaming the God or the devil for election outcomes, but realize that God has given free will to every human being (there’s no volitional sin or righteous judgment without it), you’ll be motivated to do what you can to stimulate people to look at the evidence of God’s beneficial standards for their lives. Evidence of benefit can be shown by research, and beneficial evidence usually agrees with God’s word. When we understand mankind’s responsibility, we adopt the right attitude and expectations — expectations based on hope and reality!

Finally, realize the value of exposing evil and the harm it does. Nationally, the Republicans won the White House and kept the Congress because alternative, conservative media sufficiently exposed the unconstitutional acts and excesses of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In contrast, the harmful laws of nearly 60 years of nearly-consisted Democrat rule in the California Legislature, and the harmful consequences of today’s highly-potent marijuana, have not been exposed to the majority of Californians.

For the love of God and love of people, there’s a lot of work for us to do! Please commit today that you’ll be part of it, and learn to shine your life in new and creative ways. People need Truth, and we need to authentically love our neighbor!

You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. Deuteronomy 11:19-21