(The Catholic Thing) — Politics is a constant source of confusion and anxiety. I should think all parties will agree with this, though half of each for the wrong reasons.
The result of the recent American federal election came as a surprise to me. Americans seem to be taking it well – there was far less violence than had been anticipated, and in the end no prospect of a civil war.
I am myself generally an enthusiast for the peaceful transfer of power – although I think transferring it to (actual) Nazis, fascists, communists, or the proponents of other unambiguously evil ideologies, ought to be violently resisted.
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Alas, when Democrats (of any party) call their opponents in an election, casually and ignorantly – “Nazis,” “fascists,” “communists,” and so forth – they contribute to our confusion and anxiety.
I wasn’t expecting the Republicans to win. When I heard the media “reporting” that “white women” would vote for Kamala and Tim with a margin of 14 percent, I assumed the game was up. Another election, it seemed, was fixed.
Donald and JD might win as many votes, overall, but the white women would decide it, and they would all be voting for “abortion rights.” They would clinch all the swing states with tiny margins, perhaps with ballots delivered a bit late. (I call them the “dead baby voters.”)
But I shouldn’t have believed what “progressive” media were reporting. They give lying a bad name.
Still, I thought I could see what was happening. The women’s vote projections were themselves part of a steal. Republican women would be intimidated and stay home. And Barack Obama would tell blacks to vote as a block.
This, unless I am mistaken, is how they won in 2020.
But the difference was Mrs. Lara Trump, the Republican chairwoman who orchestrated an unprecedented ballot watch. She had spent big money on agents and lawyers. Their extraordinary efforts paid off.
It was a Republican landslide, despite various “innovative voting reforms” that Democrat states had introduced.
My own preference is for absolute monarchies, or even constitutional republics, not based too obviously on fraud, though I understand they are the way of the world. But the demand for “equality” makes number games inevitable. (The reader may think this through.)
Should the numbers be trusted, however, in defiance of Christian reason? We are told not to put our faith in the children of men, so why trust a statistical sampling?
A government truly for the people, cannot be by the people, or it will promptly dissolve in vulgar power-plays. Instead, if we are looking for something reliable, we should look to the inhuman, and for our laws to God, visible over time.
For from the beginning of time, He was there.
Human authority should be obeyed – even democratic institutions – until they begin to contradict the divine. But the democratic insistence on equality negates freedom, justice, and every other ideal.
It is enough to be just, and free; to be a good man, and thus aware of the beauty that can save the world.
The people must at least be Christianized.
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The idea of a “Christian democracy” was among the naive proposals of the last century, along with the “United Nations” and “world peace.” It seemed plausible that the European continent, peopled overwhelmingly by nominal Christians (as it once was), could be trusted to defend Christian virtues.
It could not, of course.
The depth of this naïveté has now been revealed to anyone who has examined the political history of Europe, since.
Perhaps, in the 13th century, it might have worked, but I don’t think so. One has only to consult the scholastics to realize why it would have led to disaster, even then.
Yet hope so often revives, eternal in corrupt human hearts. In their celebration of victory after November 5th, the Republicans assume that everything that made the Democrats “nasty” was somehow put in suspended animation.
They think that we have changed, that even “political correctness” has been defeated, that woke Marxism has gone away. There will be new words for it, however. New ideologies will restate what the old stated.
Supposing that everything dirty is cleaned up, there will always be another election. All the foolish ideas that propelled the last “progressive” administration will be back. As Mr. Trump once famously said, “people will get tired of winning,” and when they do, they will vote once again for world, flesh, and devil.
This is how the world works, and why God has advised us not to put our faith in men, i.e., not in Trump.
It is why the cosmic order supplies a (radically undemocratic) model for how human society should be conducted, and how people should behave, through the example of the saints. It leaves the formation of secular governments largely to chance.
One cannot begin to imagine God behind any political order. For, I find it possible to imagine Him only behind a divine order. So, what should we think of governments?
That they are to be endured.
And they are legitimate: they must be legitimately endured. They should be obeyed, except when one’s obedience is owed, higher. (Note the hierarchical principle!)
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For thousands of years, billions of people have been enduring governments, and tax collectors. From experience, we may attribute them to historical accidents. But there is nothing we can do about them that will outlast our time.
The people (blessings upon them) have generally voted for the conservative party, or else to punish the conservative party, or because they were bored.
But in one respect, supporters of the Democrats and the Republicans, and of other parties, should join together in celebration.
We find ourselves in the world. And whether we succeed or fail, in our worthy or unworthy endeavors, for this moment we are here, together, and unquestionably, miraculously alive. That is simply how things are.
And let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord; praise ye the Lord.
Reprinted with permission from The Catholic Thing.