The Daily Briefing highlights the news of the day and research that reveals the spirit of the day.
The Daily Briefing is a newsletter sent straight to your inbox every morning that provides biblical insight on today's news.
Top News
6. Democrats clear 250 House seats in decisive victory (NY Times)
“The Democratic House majority surged past 250 seats on Thursday as the party seized its biggest majority in nearly two decades by flipping more seats, including in Montana, where a former smoke jumper disrupted decades of Republican dominance. The last time either party held so many seats was 2008, when Democrats swept to power behind Barack Obama.”
"In addition, Democratic socialist Nithya Raman has toppled incumbent Karen Bass in the race for mayor of Los Angeles. Raman's win stunned political watchers in California after she entered the race as a long-shot candidate against Bass, a political heavyweight who previously served in Congress and had never lost a race for political office. Her win solidifies that America's two biggest cities will now be led by democratic socialists, which include some of the most high-profile politicians in the US, such as Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”
When voting for a candidate, do you primarily look back at their past or forward in light of their promises? One of the more established explanations in political science is called retrospective voting. This refers to how voters largely look backward before deciding who should lead them forward.
In his work Retrospective Voting in American National Elections, Morris Fiorina delineates between 2 ways of thinking about elections: pure retrospective voting and future-oriented retrospective voting. The former is a straightforward performance evaluation. The latter is an internal argument that voters use with the incumbent to form expectations about what will happen if that party remains in power. At the core, elections are not just judgments about the past. They are decisions about whether voters believe the future will be better with the people they have or with the people they don't yet have.
We all looked back this past week, and Tish Harrison Warren wants to look even further back… She recently penned a fascinating article regarding the recent elections and how candidates on both sides of the aisle brought up their faith. “It’s not that I think politicians need to keep their beliefs quiet. It’s that… their versions of faith seem to fit so tidily into their political parties’ priorities… I would love for the conversation about faith and politics to be far more complex and far more messy and, yes, less predictable.” Throughout history, Christians have been compelled by the Word to advance justice – like with their efforts to eradicate the slave trade. They have also twisted the Scriptures at times to achieve desired ends. Voters looked back this past week, but hopefully they will now set their gaze forward, not looking at an elected official but a reigning king. (Pro. 22, 11, James 4)
5. Dow plunges 1,800 points, wiping out gains from midterm results rally (ABC News)
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down more than 1,800 points on Thursday, wiping out all of the rally from a day earlier when midterm election results propelled the index to its best trading session in more than a year. The S&P 500 finished trading down 4.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 5.5%, putting the index into correction territory, meaning it has fallen more than 10% from a previous peak last month. The Dow closed down 1,833 points, or about 3.4%.
“The selloff hammered many artificial intelligence firms as investors appeared to digest risk for the sector posed by newly empowered Democrats, many of whom ran campaigns critical of artificial intelligence data centers. Nvidia, the chipmaking giant behind many of the semiconductors used in AI products, closed down 9% on Thursday. Rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices saw shares fell 17%. SanDisk, another AI hardware firm, plummeted more than 22% in value by market close.”
Are we picking tulips? During the height of the Dutch Golden Age in the 1630s, the market for exotic tulip bulbs devolved into a financial fever dream where logic seemed optional. Rare, multicolored bulbs became the ultimate status symbol, fetching prices higher than a luxury home in Amsterdam. Eventually, the price went down, to the detriment of those trading their life savings, homes, and businesses for paper contracts promising bulbs that hadn't even sprouted yet.
We have the propensity to suffer greatly from conformity bias. Hardwired into our biology, this bias is rooted in a desire to be aligned with other people. Research has consistently shown that those who suffer from this bias will modify their beliefs in order to conform with the group. As Todd Rose puts it in his book Collective Illusions: “Like the relentless tug of Earth’s gravity, our yearning to go along with the crowd is an unconscious and largely inescapable part of how we move through the world.”
Say no to yes men. Similar to Rehoboam, some find themselves surrounded by yes men. And as a result, their position is weaker and portfolio is poorer. But Adam Grant is right: “Strong leaders engage their critics and make themselves stronger. Weak leaders silence their critics and make themselves weaker.” (1 Kings 12)
4. Gov. Newsom says he will commute all death sentences in state to life without parole (ABC News)
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he’ll change all death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Newsom’s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years. In 2019, he placed a moratorium on executions in the state but hundreds of people remained on death row.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a letter. Newsom moved to grant clemency to 548 people are currently sentenced to death in California, of which 529 are men and 19 are women, according to numbers provided by his office.”
Consider who received this civic mercy. Back in 1993, Richard Allen Davis abducted 12-year-old Polly Klaas from a slumber party, sexually assaulted her, and then murdered her. And then there is Charles Ng, who was convicted of murdering 11 people, including women and infant boys, in a series of abductions, rapes, and killings back in the mid-1980s.
Before there was California, there was Illinois. Back in 2003, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted 167 death sentences as he left office. Previously supporting capital punishment, Gov. Ryan reconsidered his stance after the exoneration of an innocent man on death row. "My concern basically was if I had left office and didn't do anything about it and woke up one morning and found some innocent person had died, I would have to live with that the rest of my life."
What about mercy? Often, those against the death penalty will focus on Jesus ushering in a new paradigm of grace and redemption over retribution (Mt. 5:17, Jn. 5:39, Lk. 24:27, Rom. 12:19). However, can there be mercy where justice is not satisfied? Channeling CS Lewis, Chuck Colson noted: “There can be no mercy where justice is not satisfied. Justice entails receiving what we in fact deserve; we did in fact know better. Mercy is not receiving what we deserve. To be punished, however severely, because we indeed deserve it, is to be treated with dignity as human beings created in God’s image.”
Cultural News
3. 40-Somethings Are Having a Really Hard Time Admitting They Can No Longer See (WSJ)
“Despite a rite of passage as old as humankind, vision changes still come as news to many—and it’s especially hard on a generation of people who have actively embraced the idea that your 40s might be the new 30s. They’re not afraid of Botox, GLPs and Pilates.
“What does scare them: admitting they have a problem when the waiter brings beet carpaccio after they swear they read beef. Here’s what early presbyopia can look like: A group in their 40s might be out for dinner. The first to have caved might bust out her new readers. Everyone else might take turns trying them on, just for fun. They can’t believe how clear the menu is. It dawns on them they’ve probably needed reading glasses for a year, maybe two. “
“The ability to focus up close gets worse each year from age 42 to around 57, according to Dr. Alan N. Glazier, an optometrist in Rockville, Md. He says the pattern often starts with “short-arm syndrome” where you push things farther away to see them.”
Meatloaf will do almost anything for love and Americans will do nearly everything to avoid aging. Interestingly enough, a survey found that 59 percent of adults age 50 to 80 say they think they look younger than other people their age. Only 6 percent said they look older than other people their age. Roughly one-third (35 percent) have invested time or money toward looking younger.
Don’t look down about getting up there in age… One study found that people with positive views of aging were outliving those with negative views by 7.5 years. Another review of research identified 3 distinct emotional skills that older people develop: react less to negative situations, ignore more irrelevant negative stimuli than when they were younger, and remember more positive than negative information.
Don’t be like Pharaoh… Moses and Aaron confronted Pharaoh with God’s command to let the Israelites go, backed by increasingly undeniable signs and plagues. Even when Egypt's own magicians acknowledged God's power during the plague of gnats, and even after water turned to blood, darkness covered the land, and livestock died, Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart. In this instance, don’t let a stiff neck blind you to the writing on the wall -- that you may or may not see due to your weakening vision. (Ex. 7-14)
News You Can Use
2. 109-year-old best friends share key to long, happy lives: "Just be kind to people"
Watch it here. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph. 4:32)
1. Lucky fisherman catches fish worth $1M
Watch it here. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” (Pro. 16:33)
