Even leftist media is turning on cackling Kamala Harris, and Trump’s momentum is rising. Democrats are ruthless and dishonest, but have hope; we face great odds, but we can win.
October 26 is the feast of the saintly English king known to history as Alfred the Great, who overcame immense odds to win a decisive victory over the pagan Danish invaders at Ethandune in 878. In his “Ballad of the White Horse,” GK Chesterton describes the battle, including the last desperate charge of the Christian army against the Vikings. Miraculously, marvelously, the Christians win — not least because they fight in the name of the Cross and Christ’s Mother. And we too can defy the odds to vote in Donald Trump and launch a major upset, even though the Democrats (who are certainly modern pagans) jeer at us. “The bondsmen of the earth shall tread the tyrants of the seas.”
Donald Trump is not exactly a holy figure of hagiography, as Alfred was, but he is certainly a brave and determined leader who keeps fighting even after taking a literal bullet. Just after Barack Obama jeered at Trump for playing “Ave Maria” at his rallies, after Kamala Harris criticized Christian protestors and stated she believes in no religious exemptions re: abortion, as the Democrats double down on their LGBTQ and abortion obsessions, it certainly seems as if they are returned to paganism. Trump, on the other hand, has made faith a recurring topic and theme of his campaign, from rally music to social media posts. He is not a saint, but he is ready to take on the new pagans and defend freedom of conscience.
Related: This Election Decides If Freedom of Conscience Survives
Just as this election will determine our ability to keep our most fundamental rights sacred from government attack, in the “Ballad of the White Horse,” King Alfred rallies his man by reminding them that fleeing from the fight will only bring them slavery under tyrants, whereas standing and fighting will mean either death or victory — both options preserving them as free men. All the noble leaders and commanders on the English side, except Alfred, have been killed, and now it is just Alfred and the ordinary soldiers, the farmers and sailors and laborers.
“Brothers at arms," said Alfred,
"On this side lies the foe;
Are slavery and starvation flowers,
That you should pluck them so?…
“To sweat a slave to a race of slaves,
To drink up infamy?
No, brothers, by your leave, I think
Death is a better ale to drink,
And by all the stars of Christ that sink,
The Danes shall drink with me…
“Though dead are all the paladins
Whom glory had in ken,
Though all your thunder-sworded thanes
With proud hearts died among the Danes,
While a man remains, great war remains:
Now is a war of men.
"The men that tear the furrows,
The men that fell the trees,
When all their lords be lost and dead
The bondsmen of the earth shall tread
The tyrants of the seas…
“Let Gorlias ride the sea-kings
As Gorlias rides the sea,
Then let all hell and Denmark drive,
Yelling to all its fiends alive,
And not a rag care we…
"And now I blow the hunting sign,
Charge some by rule and rod;
But when I blow the battle sign,
Charge all and go to God."
Wild stared the Danes at the double ways
Where they loitered, all at large,
As that dark line for the last time
Doubled the knee to charge—
And caught their weapons clumsily,
And marvelled how and why—
In such degree, by rule and rod,
The people of the peace of God
Went roaring down to die.
The Danes, secure in their pride, cannot understand why the Christians would fight against greater odds. They cannot understand why men would prefer freedom and death to life in slavery. And they certainly do not expect to have their pride overthrown by the ordinary working men. One cannot but help see a comparison to how the Democrats now despise Americans, but particularly those who are their political opponents. They are starting to panic now in this election, but to some extent they don’t fully believe they can lose; they are too arrogant. That is exactly why we are going to win.
In the poem, Alfred looks up to see a vision of Christ’s Mother Mary, appearing above the battlefield, a sword in her hand. And the humble farmers and sailors kill the lords of the Danes and seize the battle standard.
"The high tide!" King Alfred cried.
"The high tide and the turn!
As a tide turns on the tall grey seas,
See how they waver in the trees,
How stray their spears, how knock their knees,
How wild their watchfires burn!
"The Mother of God goes over them,
Walking on wind and flame,
And the storm-cloud drifts from city and dale,
And the White Horse stamps in the White Horse Vale,
And we all shall yet drink Christian ale
In the village of our name.
"The Mother of God goes over them,
On dreadful cherubs borne;
And the psalm is roaring above the rune,
And the Cross goes over the sun and moon,
Endeth the battle of Ethandune
With the blowing of a horn."…
And Hildred the poor hedger
Cut down four captains dead,
And Halmar laid three others low,
And the great earls wavered to and fro
For the living and the dead…
[Danish] King Guthrum was a great lord,
And higher than his gods—
He put the popes to laughter,
He chid the saints with rods,
He took this hollow world of ours
For a cup to hold his wine;
In the parting of the woodways
There came to him a sign.
In Wessex in the forest,
In the breaking of the spears,
We set a sign on Guthrum
To blaze a thousand years…
Far out to the winding river
The blood ran down for days,
When we put the cross on Guthrum
In the parting of the ways.
Trump has been mocked for playing “Ave Maria,” the beautiful prayer to Mother Mary formed of Bible verses and pleas for Mary’s intercession with God, at his rallies. Like Alfred, he seems to know that more battles are won under the standard of the Cross than under the rainbow banner of the new paganism. Trump is not a saint like Alfred, but he honors Judaism and Christianity, and he won’t stop fighting no matter what. Neither will we. The high tide has come — the high tide and the turn. Vote and pray, and trust in God; the citizens of America shall tread the tyrants in D.C.
