The Long Con of American Politics
As anyone with a pulse knows by now, Ruth Bader Ginsberg has passed from this mortal plain. Most of the reactions online were decent enough, praising her for her many accomplishments and offering prayers for her soul. Others, mostly from the Right, were less than cordial, celebrating her (to them) certain arrival at the Gates of Hell. Still more, mostly from the Left, reacted with wailing and gnashing of teeth, or else treating her as a Saint, with one Catholic apologist publicly asking for her intersession (which is strange, since Ginsberg was an atheist).
Regardless, the poor woman’s corpse was hardly cold before the talking heads began chattering about what this would mean for the upcoming election, in which, we are told ad nauseum, the very fate of the Republic will hang in the balance.
I can save you the trouble of reading their blather by telling you, here and now, exactly what the passing of the Notorious R.B.G. will change about the upcoming election:
Not. A. Damn. Thing.
For one, everything the Left is threatening to do if Trump selects a new justice before the election has already been done this year. You can hardly threaten violent riots when you’ve been rioting for months already. In any case, their concerns that Trump will use this as a means to take away their sacred sacrament of abortion are, as usual, highly unlikely. The man increased Planned Parenthood’s funding several times in the last four years, for crying out loud.
The only thing that will change is that the loud, shrill voices crying out day and night that the sky is falling will shout louder and shriller with more elaborate prophecies of doom, should their candidate not win the upcoming MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER! Yes, even more important than the last one. And the one before that. And the one before that.
And they wonder why so few people vote in this country. Even Disney knows that constant sequel escalation is a sure-fire way to lose an audience. But our pundits and politicians are propagandists, and thus have no idea how to tell a good story. For instance, they seem to have missed the part where a story must be at least somewhat believable. Time and time again our political-media class have told us that the end was nigh, and time and time again nothing much has come of it. America is, against all the testimony of the online puff pieces, still alive. A doctor who misdiagnosed his patients this way would soon be without a medical license. A pastor who mis-predicted the date of the rapture even once would not have much of a congregation left. The miracle here is not that America has survived so many “disastrous” elections, but that these Chicken Littles in cheap suites still have jobs.
Even Erick Erickson, a conservative talk show host here in Georgia, is starting to realize the absurdity of it all, declaring on air to his Trump loving audience that it’s not the end of the world if Biden wins. And it won’t be if Trump wins either.
In point of fact, the results of this all-important election won’t change very much at all. As Mark Twain is alleged to have said, “If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”
Four years from now, regardless of who wins in November, abortion will still be legal.
Four years from now, the perverts will still be trying to groom our children.
Four years from now, refugees at the border will still be abused with impunity.
Four years from now, the United States will still be home to the largest prison system in the world.
Four years from now, our tax dollars will still be used to slaughter entire cities in the Middle East, either by funding horrendous regimes or “moderate” terrorists.
Four years from now, our chief exports will still be bombs and pornography.
I can say this with certainty, because these are the issues that the last election was supposed to fix. And the one before that. And the one before that. Each time the politicians and pundits assured us that the end of everything was nigh, and each time we found ourselves in the exact same place four years later.
What was the definition of stupidity again?
Regardless of who wins, innocent people will suffer horrors at the hands of the United States Government. The only question is, who? And this may be, at bottom, what this election is about. We are less like rational people giving patient consideration of the issues of the day and more like traumatized children raised by a mother of ill repute, who every four years decides to shack up with a different toxic boyfriend. Our only solace is the possibility that she will pick the one who like to beat up our siblings and not us. (It would be wonderful if our dear mum would find a decent man and get married, but she has been firmly anti-marriage since that nasty divorce in ’76).
We have been told this year again and again that we as a nation must repent of our sins and fully reckon with our past. This is perfectly true, but any mental health expert will tell you that the healing required to do such things only happens in an environment where a person feels safe. Our political media complex is single-mindedly devoted to making sure that we never feel safe. No politician, not even an incumbent with stellar accomplishments, runs on a platform of “Things are great, but I can make them better.” No, it is always, “Evil people are coming to destroy everything you love, and I alone can save you!”
With such hyperbole (to put it charitably) in the air, we the people subject ourselves to being re-traumatized every couple of years. This, we are told is the price of our freedom. In order to avert that terrible day of new revolution, in which, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots, we offer every four years, in an unbloody manner, the representation of our original revolution. Our sacred rites have yet to produce the Real Presence of George Washington, but they have summoned a different spirit: a spirit of revolution, one which delights in tearing apart nations, churches, communities, and families over matters of politics, repeatedly reopening the wounds of our founding so that they may never heal. (And other nasty spirits as well.)
An America angry and at each other’s throats is good for business in Washington, and is the delight of the Dark Prince under the earth.
What then can we do?
The best thing to do is to tune out the noise. Decide who you are voting for, or if you are even going to vote at all, and be done with it. Then set about the difficult business of healing. Reconnect with the eternal things. Pray. Stop doing things you know are wrong. Look for ways you can improve your relationships with your family. Find ways you can help address issues in your local community. For there, not in Washington, are the things you actually have the power to change. It may not be instant or flashy, but this is the way civilizations are built and preserved.
Even if I am wrong, and this really is the election that will change everything, we have no way of knowing. Our panicking pundits are not acting any differently than usual. So, instead of being tossed about in another round of Girardian Scapegoating, let us leave them to their idle chatter and get to work. We have souls to save, and we just might save our nation from itself in the process.
If you like what I write here, be sure to check out my novel, Cain Son of Adam: A Gothic Tragedy, available in paperback and eBook formats on Amazon, and free to read on Kindle Unlimited.
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