Seeing Through the Glass Darkly

Republicans, being the Stupid Party, are likely to misinterpret the result of last week’s election result and end up compromising on some core issue that will turn off a large segment of their base and create more Democrats.

Democrats, being the Evil Party, are likely to misinterpret the result of last week’s election and end up pushing hard for some destructive policy set that will create more Democrats while also straining the nation’s overextended entitlements even further.

The policy that both parties are likely to work together on is “comprehensive” immigration reform. Republicans will end up trying to reach more Hispanic voters in a way that creates more Democratic voters. Democrats will end up stressing their precious welfare state to the breaking point. They may feed the beast to death. The media, full of evil and stupid hacks who write from souls of dishonesty, will fail to note the erosion of the rule of law and, really, any other fact that’s relevant to a nation that should wish to remain as such.

While everyone focuses on demography, which surely played a role in last week’s election, the possibilities of cheating and buying votes aren’t getting much play. Barack Obama is said to have gotten as much as 99% of the vote in some Democrat strongholds. Those are Fidel Castro numbers. They’re not believable. (Neither are the numbers coming out of Broward County in Florida). It’s a guaranteed lock that there was voter fraud in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, in places like the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, because there has always been voter fraud in those areas. There has been and there will be no fix for this fraud for the foreseeable future.

It’s a guaranteed certainty that the Democrats bought votes in a variety of ways, from the usual political promises and threats, to the rise of middle class welfare and the Obama Phone — a million of those in Ohio alone, remember, and regardless of how when the program actually started, users see those phones as gifts from Obama — and it’s a guaranteed certainty that left-wing outfits like the Voter Participation Center slipped some number of fraudulent voter registrations into the system. Recall, that the VPC was most active in Virginia and Florida. That should make us go “Hmmm.” And Hurricane Sandy gave Obama an excuse to don the bomber jacket for a day or two and, among other things, pushed his real foreign policy failures even farther from the front pages than they already were. He’s not a real president in many ways — for instance, ask Democrats how involved Obama gets in the legislative process — but he plays one on TV well enough to get some votes.

In addition to all of this, I learned something at church Sunday morning. In the past 12 years, the number of Americans who claim to believe in no religion has skyrocketed from 8 percent to 19 percent. From one in 12 to one in five.

I’m not making any judgements on anyone here. People who attended church leave for a mix of valid and stupid reasons. Had the apostle Paul not already coined “chief of sinners” for himself I might adopt that title for my own.

But here’s something worth considering. That great a cultural change over that short a span of time is bound to have effects far beyond the number of bodies in church seats on Sunday mornings. Many who would previously have turned to a church in their time of need have, for whatever reason, moved away from any affiliation with any church. Where do they then turn?

The Catholic church has had its problems, but at the same time the Protestant churches have undergone a massive cultural change. Denominations have weakened to the point of irrelevance and have been replaced either by non-denominationalism or by the rise of feel-good preachers who don’t actually teach anything. Progressive — as in far left liberal and statist — teachings have slipped in, undermining the church’s moorings. Progressivism worships the almighty State. The modern Protestant church is adrift and losing souls by the millions in America. Among those who have left the church are undoubtedly more than a few Katy Perrys — people raised in the church, but who reject it in adulthood and then become its chief accusers. Politically, where do they go?

Again, I’m not making any judgements on any individuals here. My point is to wonder what other changes follow this cultural change. The numbers make their own case as to where American minds and hearts are headed. Just as faith fills a need, the lack of faith often leaves a need. For not all but certainly some, that need will be met with a man on high who gives you stuff, but more importantly who leads a benevolent state that he says cares about you. He works a miracle in the way that many flim flam men do. His rank hypocrisy — he claims to use the government to be his metaphorical brothers’ keeper but fails to do anything to help his actual living and breathing brother — is irrelevant. He is a hollow messiah for some, but a messiah nonetheless.