THE JUDGMENT OF THE PEOPLE
These past months, judgments have been passed all around. From the “high priests” of our times, the media, the rich and ruling elites, academia, etc. to the lesser-lite “potentates” in the administrative state and traditionally-revered government agencies, and including those kibitzing galleries of the world at large.
And with almost one collective voice, they have declared Trump unfit and unworthy to continue to sit as President of the most powerful country in the world. Off with his head, they appear to declare.
But in one day, November 3rd, the only judgment that counts will be rendered by the people, the governed.
How shall it stand?
The crowd of a prior though similar time had also been ambivalent. At first, it too marveled at the man on the hustings. They adored his awe-inspiring miracles, his simple but profound teachings, the reverential promises of salvation and good will he had declared, his cool and calculating demeanor. But in the end, they too wanted no part of him. So mesmerized, enamored, and subdued by the enticing rhetoric of their betters, the people who were supposed to know better and were trusted.
So history came to be as written.
Will it be repeated?
Note: Yes, it was repeated. But the road ahead could not be as rocky and dismal.
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In these days of the dead, it serves us well to remember how we regard life.
If one perceives life as having value unto itself then it is most important that everybody lives and nobody dies.
But we have been taught that earthly life is not that significant. Christ taught by example about sacrificing a life so a greater good can be attained. Earthly life then has value when it has purpose, not because it is life and has to be lived to its natural end.
Thus, when we think about the dead, rather than think of the life itself, we memorialize instead the greater good accomplished.
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Living in an imperfect world with imperfect people, one can still practice some kind of perfection in our elections, given the supposedly democratic way they are done.
Thus, if one must have to choose from a slate of candidates, so that the overall choice would truly represent and typify the people being governed, at the very least please select candidates to represent the different defined sectors of that society. Sectors to be prioritized as to number significance and importance. One to represent big business, small business, the vulnerable and underprivileged, the world of academia and students. One for Women? I would say no, else in fairness we would also need one for Men. Etc. BTW, let us stay away from the whys and wherefores of the PartyList system. It sucks.
Also, we ought to forget about family relationships, friendship, or acquaintances in arriving at our choices.
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Written 8 years ago but still relevant and apt for today.
But maybe with a bit of qualification, for in this current electoral exercise, I have witnessed so much unwarranted anger and hateful rhetoric thrown against an incumbent that many do not support coming from out of the woodwork.
Thus, instead of expressing thoughts and ideas why a certain candidate should be chosen over another, many instead unceremoniously unload on the person on the other side, detailing his many flaws and failings, plus various deleterious commentaries collected from a host of sources, as from other pundits and disgruntled relatives.
Personally, such method reeks of a heavy smell of self-righteousness that clearly is misplaced. For after all, we are all ourselves flawed and are all answerable to another authority. And may also thus be guilty of such unwanted blemishes. We ought rather to focus on pertinent misconducts rather than ad hominem assaults.
On why I believe that we ought to be active and partisan in our politics, with regard to issues and policies we find objectionable:
And I take a quite divergent view about our free will and how it operates in our reality. I subscribe deeply to the attitude of Ignatius with regard to prayer for it rationalizes how free will and a whole host of paradoxes like God being all-knowing are justified.
Ignatius compartmentalizes prayer, the first part being the actual prayer say for assistance on the eradication of evil; and here we ought to pray like EVERYTHING depended on God’s will and Providence. But the corollary part which is the actual doing of actually attempting to eradicate that evil, we ought to maintain the attitude that EVERYTHING depended on us. So we work our butts to try and realize it.
If what we wish for does not happen, it is then less attributable to God than to ourselves. That maybe we did not exert sufficient efforts and determination to try to eliminate that evil. Or also that with this tribulation some good will be born from it, to bring us closer to our eternal goal. This due to the almighty and at times incomprehensible wisdom of God.
Therefore, regardless of which side we have hitched our chariot on, we ought to exert maximum efforts in bringing out that change. Leaving no stone unturned. And I say it should be less about whether the outcome would personally affect our own lives or not, but more because it is the right thing to do!
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A Heavy Dose of Humility: In These Troubled Times
As I trudge along daily in the confines of the virtual worlds I visit in silence but ever alert, places which have now become familiar sights, I find one common thread. Made more compelling under the intense heat of hotly-contested politics and elections.
And it is that like the pandemic scourge that has inflamed and disrupted our worlds, evil or its traces can find residence even in the best places and people that we hold dear. Quite unlikely locales, but like COVID 19 its infiltration easily takes roots.
And like the scourge, we do find it insidiously in residence, whether knowingly or unknowingly, in places and people we think unlikely to be infected.
But then that is the nature of evil, it is smart, persistent, and definitely more resourceful than many of us, even the good-hearted among us.
How does it manifest itself in our words and actions? In multitude of ways and means.
One typical manifestation. How easily we treat as gospel truths snippets of facts we have acquired and clung to tenaciously, informing and hard-casting our profound beliefs, and then like the seers of old, imposing them on the rest with haughty authority and command. Yet in truth, people may find what we know as scant, sparing, or even only a warped version of the truth.
What is it about wealth and power that when formerly ordinary folks acquire them, they start acting like gods? Like Imposing their will on others in certain ways, and anointing themselves as our moral and ethical guardians.
What could be an antidote? Unlike the pandemic, we do have the “vaccine” to assist us mitigate it.
Humility is one such answer, a ready tonic for arrogant pride. It opens the path to knowledge and understanding. It opens the doors of our minds to possibilities closeminded-ness, or even just pigheaded-ness, could never attain.
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Speaking of the 2020 US Presidential Elections
When we were living there which had started forty years ago, the US electoral system was the envy of the world, not only for its process but its ease in handling and counting millions of votes expeditiously in a huge and widely-dispersed country. Even then, manual counting was the preferred method. And unquestioned results were known and broadcast quickly. By midnight of the same day, typically even partial results were already such that presumptive winners were already known.
But over time, it started to show its inherent weaknesses or time-borne shortcomings which were left largely unattended to and unmitigated. We know that any system is just as good as the people using it. In this instance, there is little doubt, it is the people responsible for its fall from transparency and integrity to one similar to lesser developed countries.
How ever this particular election is resolved, henceforth the US will have lost the vaunted transparency and integrity of its electoral system. It will be likened to like any in less developed countries.
No doubt the US system has weaknesses or shortcomings exacerbated over time. When voter rolls are left not updated, then we have many dead people vote. It is reported that in California alone about 3 million names in the rolls ought to be expunged. But no such action.
The massive mail-in ballots sent or other early voting schemes suddenly promulgated under cover of the pandemic, also contributed greatly to the chaos and exposed the system to possible massive voter fraud. Was it an unintended possible consequence or was it willful?
The latter is where the focus of the current and pending legal challenges will be centered. BTW, it is common knowledge that there are no electronic systems that cannot be hacked, one way or the other.
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Some Observations, collected over time.
The US as a country has always been center-right (essentially conservative in its values) likely as far back in history to its very founding. Any poll even today will show that. It is for this reason that the left has always been frustrated in the ballot and in legislation, though it is possessed of arsenal that the conservative right cannot match (power and influence coming from media, big tech and big money, etc.) No doubt because of this, the left has had to resort to other means. Like putting unelected judges who instead of interpreting laws, will try to legislate from the bench and thus move forward leftist agenda.
This premise may explain and validate the results of the last 2020 presidential election. In spite of the formidable concerted efforts arrayed against outlier and much-maligned Trump he still was able to garner over 73 million votes, which one could easily surmise were earnest and legitimate voters who not only favored Trump and his agenda, but also loved him since their vow of support included prayers offered to him. This is the most that any sitting president has ever received. Thus we have people of faith who find Trump promoting and elevating their values and faith practices.
This election also brought to the fore an added issue that has not been addressed before in any serious manner. Voting Fraud. Which we believe did not just happen now, but had started to creep into the system over time. Though there is yet no verified and confirmed claims of fraud that could overturn the initial count, no doubt fraud has been committed on a large enough scale, as we are finding more and more daily. The forced exposure to sunlight on this issue could bring about reforms to protect its transparency and sanctity, so a frustrated people could restore back its trust and confidence in the system.
