And just like that, as though coordinated with a prearranged signal, it seems to me that the Democrats have decided to do what they can to make sure that Donald Trump gets a full two terms. While I have been mulling over my promise to write on the challenge that Christians face when it comes to how they will vote in the 2020 presidential election—as I still intend to do—it appears that all the cliffhanger elements are being removed by the Democrats. They want to make sure that by the time I write, the whole thing will be moot.
For the warm-up, they did the whole Virginia thing. This is yet another example in modern politics—and there appear to be many such instances—that make it seem like God is messing with us. A scandal erupts in Virginia. Governor Northam defends infanticide. Some classmates of his from medical school, peeved at this, release the contents of his med school year book, in which he is decked out, either in black face or a Klan hood. The lieutenant governor, a black man, gets confronted with a #MeToo accuser, and then a second #MeToo accuser comes forward, charging him with rape. The third in line for the governor’s chair is the attorney general, who decided to get ahead of the riot by admitting that he too had done the blackface thing. The fourth in line, the speaker of the house in the Virginia legislature, is a Republican. Not only so, but the reason that the Republicans control the house is because there was one legislative race in Virginia that was a flat out tie, and so they drew the winner’s name out of a bowl. A neophyte screenwriter would be sent back to his desk for this kind of thing, with red ink all over his submission, and with words like contrived, artificial, and remember the willing suspension of disbelief scribbled in the margins.
Incidentally, while I am here, let me say something important about the charges against the lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax. After what Justice Kavanaugh went through in his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, there is certainly something delicious about national Democrats getting hoisted on their own petard in this. But being hoisted on your own petard is not the full meaning of the original Greek in the Golden Rule. Jesus said “do as you would be done by,” and He did not say “whatever they do to you go right ahead and do it back.”
So again, as soon as we allow “accusation = conviction” in politics, we are inviting our politics to get dirtier and dirtier. This means there are two things to say about the position of Justin Fairfax. Charges have been leveled against him, he emphatically denies them, and the charges have not been proven. He should remain in office until he either acknowledges the truth of the claims, or he is convicted of the charges, or enough evidence is presented to indict him such that he is unable to govern, for practical reasons, while defending himself in court. But secondly, a reporter must ask him directly if he wants to be treated according to the Kavanaugh standard. He needs to be asked directly if he agrees or disagrees with the “believe the woman” mantra that is now accepted wisdom on the left. He needs to tell us how important the rules of evidence are.
This is another way of saying that we don’t get to use a double standard on our political enemies. This is because we are responsible to maintain the rules of evidence, and a straightforward blindfolded justice. We are not in charge of poetic justice at all. But we have to acknowledge that God is in charge of poetic justice, and the Scriptures are full of accounts of men falling into “the pit they have digged,” of Hamans being hanged on their own gallows, and what we are not permitted to do—manage the “what goes around comes around” storyline—God most absolutely does do. “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2, ESV).
But then, as though all this jollity and merriment were not enough, AOC released her Green New Deal. Now she did this as a freshman member of Congress, true, but she is also a freshman member of Congress with a bazillion Twitter followers, every man Jack of them an economically illiterate product of the public school system. She has political heft, in other words. She has some demographic throw weight, and she is winsome and photogenic, except when she is doing that crazy eyes thing she does.
And because the Democratic base is now dominated by howling commies, this means that all the current Democratic candidates for president (and I think we are going to have at least a score of them in this race eventually) have signed off on this “aspirational” proposal. And it aspires to what? Getting us back to the Bronze Age! And if there is one thing that howling commies know how to do, it is getting societies back to the Bronze Age. Call it their sweet spot.
Just imagine the brainstorming sessions that went into this: “Let’s see . . . how could we possibly lose to a candidate with all the vulnerabilities of Donald J. Trump? Yes, Sebastian?” Outlaw the internal combustion engine! Ban cow farts! Eliminate air travel! Republicans are anti-science!
One can only conclude that God is trying to teach us all the meaning of grace as unmerited favor. Do the Republicans really deserve this kind of opposition?