Another election cycle has come and gone. Some candidates we rooted for won. Others didn’t. Some names surprised us. Others… well, let’s just say they were hard to miss when every billboard seems to feature their mug for us to see.

But beyond the vote counts and post-election debates, what did we learn? Let’s take a look.

8. You have to fight back against fake news

There are a ton of reasons why Vico Sotto won via landslide in Pasig, but one of the key things he does right is that he doesn’t suffer from any misinformation. If he can prove it wrong with receipts, he will immediately, without waiting for people to even start doubting him.

In contrast, a few other politicians in the same boat tried to take the high road by not even dignifying these mostly obvious lies with a response, only for them to discover that plenty of people are willing to believe even the most obvious of lies. Apparently, calling fake news out is really the way to go.

7. Young voters are making a difference

Millennials and Gen Z were in full force last May 12, and they definitely made a huge and generally positive difference. Given that Gen Alpha looks to be leaning right compared to the last two generations, we need to take that into consideration once more of them start actively going to the polls, too.

6. Influencers still need to stay in their lane

Compared to other kinds of celebrities such as actors and reporters, influencers received a thorough drubbing, as nearly all of them ended up dropping out of the race before the actual election. The era when we would expect Mommy Oni could also be Mayor Oni is not yet here, and for now, that seems to be a good thing.

5. Local politics is arguably even more important

The race for Mayor, their councilors, and your congress rep will probably have a bigger effect on you than the Senators and even the President and Vice President, so knowing who you should be voting for in those slots is extremely important. It’s good that we are doing research on the national positions, but we should at least put in the same effort when it comes to our local options.

4. Good governance no longer goes unrewarded

Look at the votes that came in for two of the top mayors in the country. Yes, one of them is Vico. The point is, when people know you’re doing a good job, it becomes harder and harder to pretend you’re not in this day and age. There are so many opportunities to let your constituents know you’re hard at work without coming across as fake or worse, epal. The ones who really dominated the elections made good use of these opportunities.

3. Unity? What unity?

It became pretty clear that these elections were a referendum in the growing divide between the Marcoses and the Dutertes. By all indications, it looks like the numbers clearly favor one side over the other. This situation bears watching.

2. Popularity = win is at an all-time low

It’s arguable that less celebrities than ever have won by virtue of being a celebrity. People we expected to be shoo-ins, like Willie Revillame, famous people running for re-election like Manny Pacquiao, and just a host of other popular names tasted defeat unexpectedly. It still helps, absolutely, but it’s no longer the magic bullet it used to be.

1. Purity Olympics is a hopeless pursuit

There is, sadly, a need to make strategic choices in our voting if we want to get to where we want to be in the future. This involves making compromises where we can, even supporting people whom we normally would never consider electing, but only to a point.

At the end of the day, we all have our own non-negotiables. Everything aside from those, on the other hand, needs to be considered and at the very least, discussed. The real world has never been ideal, so it’s high time we tempered our expectations accordingly.

What was your biggest post-elections learning?