The battle for the election isn’t over. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things to learn from it.

1. Over the last 4+ years, the Democrats unleashed every possible tool to get to the point where they are now, from illegal spying to massive censorship to criminalizing political dissent to massive voter fraud. These are issues that the country will have to confront going forward no matter how all this shakes out.

We have gone down a very dark and dangerous path. And the future of a free nation is at stake.

This election was stolen. Fighting the steal doesn’t preclude learning useful lessons from things that could have and should have been done better.

2. Full mobilization of the base isn’t enough. The base turnout for President Trump in this election was incredible and mindblowing. But this would not have been a close election if Republicans hadn’t performed badly with independents and the suburbs. There are a number of reasons for this beginning with “tax reform” that was the equivalent of Obamacare for many suburban residents, and a general failure to communicate with people outside the core base of Trump supporters. The core base both expanded and contracted, bringing in new supporters, including minorities, but leaving behind a lot of people who might have voted Republican. The campaign didn’t talk about who was really to blame for the coronavirus death toll, didn’t hammer Biden over his Wall Street ties, or do anything that would meaningfully counter the media campaign against President Trump. This was a profound failure.

If the campaign had spent as much time appealing to winnable voters as it did targeting minorities, this would not have been a close election.

3 .A whole bunch of money was wasted. Democrats wasted far more money this election cycle, but conservatives still plowed a lot of cash into doomed races in solid blue areas. The $10 million wasted on a doomed campaign against AOC in a Latino-Hipster district was money that might have made a difference in Michigan.

Just because the election was stolen doesn’t mean that mistakes weren’t made.

Political machines in urban areas try to steal every election they can. When Republicans win above the voter fraud margin, it becomes much harder to do.