What is one to say of yesterday’s events on Capitol Hill? Certainly, sides, already divided, are being drawn in more than the sand, and may soon be chiseled into the very hearts of men. It is difficult to see with anti-Trumpers such Dreher and French that the president incited his supporters to riot. Yes, some of his language is inflammatory, but then so is Biden’s and host of others – and he is free to hold his opinion that the voting on November 4th was rigged, as do millions of others. But I do not recall anything of his about storming the legislature, or to any act of violence.
Should a court – here, the Supreme variety – have examined the evidence of voter fraud? The forbidding of scrutineers, the shifting of ballot boxes, the strange algorithms in the mysterious voting machines, the ‘burst water main’ and mid-night shutdown, the statistically improbable results? There is a strong argument to be made in favour of this, for as the adage goes, it’s not enough for justice to be done, justice has to be seen to be done. But, as others have argued, the Justices – and the FBI and anyone else involved – if not compromised, and honestly seeking the truth, would have likely feared for their – and their family’s – physical safety, should they even remotely doubted or disputed the Democratic victory.
Perhaps Mr. Dreher may recall from his Catholic days the reference from Saint Thomas, Prima Secundae, question 96, article 2, reply to the second objection: That if the people are pushed far enough, with unjust, onerous laws, left with no apparent recourse to redress those laws, will by their very nature revolt. In his vivid image from the Book of Proverbs, ‘he who violently bloweth his nose, bringeth forth blood‘.
Here’s hoping we can avoid bloodshed, and reach some level of peace. Then again, as Charles Coloumbe put it the other day, a nation that has murdered millions of its unborn children for the past half century can scarcely be a nation of peace, nor void of innocent blood, which cries out to heaven for vengeance. Mother Teresa put it succinctly, that abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace.
Biden, Harris and the Democrats, now in full control of the federal government under dubious and fraught circumstances, will double down on this, and a host of other evils. And what is the ‘other side’ supposed to do? Sit back and take it? Wait four years and vote in an opaque electoral system they no longer trust? Even the normal means of civil communication – that is, media – are censored almost entirely to the culture of death now regnant.
Perhaps the most poignant image was that of the shirtless man in the furry Viking headgear, smeared in body paint or tattoos, standing over the speaker’s desk in the very hall of the Capitol. As far as I know, he was dragged off to whatever fate awaited him.
But, as Chesterton predicted, the amoral ‘barbarians’ he unwittingly represented – unhinged from what we have up ’til now considered natural law – in different and more civil garb, are now in charge, and the whirlwind they will reap may blow the whole house down. As someone else wrote, the vote yesterday gave the other side victory; events as they unfolded have now given them a mandate.
Will America fall, or continue to fight – with peaceful means, as possible – for truth, freedom and even her very life itself?
O, Mary Conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!