Election Post Mortem

The fantasy:

Now that the American people have spoken, all sides of the great debate are willing to put aside all differences to make this country as successful as possible. It’s a noble American tradition that sets us apart from strife-torn third world countries where, if elections are held at all, they are often followed by a failure of the losing side to accept the outcome. In fact, these countries are often crippled by endless revolutions. The losing side in any election will almost always take action against the prevailing side. The actions they resort to include claims of election fraud, threats of secession, up to and including armed insurrections. In America we don’t do that–

The reality:

–The failure of much of the left to accept the will expressed by the American people in this most recent election resembles, to a frightening degree, the antics of a third world country.– We seem to be in grave danger of becoming a banana republic.

We hear the silly cries of election fraud. We are assaulted by overblown threats of secession. We are assured by the left that the president’s agenda will be thwarted via the filibuster and the activist judge. All of this seems to be motivated completely by an enormous, irrational animus against the president. And there doesn’t seem to be any rational explanation for it. This president has gone out of his way to placate the left. His education bill, agricultural spending bill, illegal immigrant policy all closely resemble those proposed by the most liberal representatives of the left, yet nonetheless, he gets no credit for huge, –some on the right say too huge– spending on these programs. He is instead showered by the left with ceaseless derision, scorn and ridicule.

How can this rabid, unreasonable, wild-eyed hatred for George W. Bush be explained? How is it that if these same liberal proposals had been enacted by Teddy Kennedy, the left would have found them acceptable, noble and just?

When you strip it all away, Bush hatred appears to all come down to one thing: religion. The fact that George W. Bush openly professes to be a practicing Christian just drives the left blinking, blind, crazy! The fact that he admits to praying to God for guidance in his major decisions causes otherwise rational people to literally foam at the mouth. How dare he believe that God influences the affairs of men! The fact that the majority of Americans share his feelings about God, kindness and good works seems to be the hardest reality of all to swallow for these secular leftists.

Any yet, this country remains overwhelmingly religious. Predominantly Christian, but with a significant portion of Jews, Moslems, Buddhists and other sects who, while they differ wildly in doctrine, all share one belief: They all believe God wants us, as individuals, to live good lives, to do good to our fellow men, to make the world a better place. They also believe in evil– that there is in the world a dark side that is bent on the destruction of all that is good, decent, praiseworthy. These two opposite forces --good and evil– have been debated endlessly by all the world’s religious philosophers for thousands of years.

But the secular left look upon “doing good” as largely a governmental mandate instead of an individual duty. To them compulsory charity is the ideal. The more government can compel you, by force of law, to give your wealth over to them, for redistribution according to their notion of what is just, the better. And of course the left wing elites look upon themselves as best suited to be the ones who make the decisions as to who gets what from the government. After all, they are so much smarter.

The religious among us will allow a “higher authority” (God) to proscribe certain self-destructive behavior which would impede our ability to do good. We will do good and avoid doing evil because we want to follow God. We will avoid “bad” behavior because we don’t want to offend God.

The secular left rejects any “rules” set down by “God” which would prohibit them from doing anything they want to do. They claim the right to do whatever they please. They think allowing God or religion to govern any aspect of their activities takes away their freedom.

Religions speak of the dual nature of mankind. Christians specify the “light of Christ” or our “better nature” to describe our good side. Conversely our “carnal nature” or the “natural man” in us describes the evil tendencies that we all seem to possess. Christians look at religious regulation not as a deprivation of freedom, but rather as a template that allows our better nature to dominate our carnal nature. Therefore, when followed, religious teaching and regulation foment joyous living. “Wickedness never was happiness” said the prophet. Religious people who seriously follow the dictates of their religion find that to be uniformly true. Rebelling against your religious traditions, may bring a temporary feeling of euphoria, but will never result in any long-term happiness.

Secular leftists don’t ever seem to be happy. This is the single most likely cause of their rabid, irrational hatred of George W. Bush, and their hatred of all professing religious people. That these religious people are so obviously happy with life drives the miserable left crazy. They can’t stand it. They think it somehow smug and wrong of president Bush to be smiling and enjoying his life, –while they are miserable! How dare he!

But this frustration and misery is entirely predictable by those who understand the joy and peace religion brings. Since the left is relying on the arm of man for everything, they are frequently disappointed. They engage in a never-ending pursuit of obliging others to support their particular secular notion of what is “good” for mankind. They think nothing of imposing laws to force others to “donate” to the favored leftist causes, yet very often are very unwilling to give generously themselves to any real charities. They are engaged endlessly and fruitlessly in the pursuit of carnal pleasure via drugs and immorality. Yet, in the end, they only find bitterness, despair and unhappiness. You can see it all around you: wickedness will never result in true happiness. Those who seek the freedom of carnal pursuits to find joy are certain to reap only bitterness in the end no matter how much they delude themselves along the way. What’s worse is that even the most dissolute among them retains in them what Christians call the “light of Christ”. They are pricked by the subconscious knowledge that their wicked behavior is wrong. They know in their heart of hearts that they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing, and it plagues and torments them.

Thus, since the left is not by nature and inclination happy, they hate –and envy– anyone who is happy. George W. Bush is happy. He embodies all the things they have failed to be. And they hate him for it.

The immature blathering about secession, and vote fraud in the wake of this election will fade quickly from the scene because of it’s ridiculous nature. The struggle between good and evil however will not fade away. There will always be a mighty battle between these two forces. Those who understand this must remain eternally vigilant lest we be overcome by the leftist secular notion that “evil” doesn’t really exist. That notion is, in and of itself, is a pure manifestation that evil does indeed exist. Evil would be only too happy to have us believe otherwise. We must be willing to fight against evil, and to understand the unhappiness of those who allow themselves to be swept up in it. The future of our nation demands nothing less on our part. It is our patriotic duty.