Beyond Predictable Boredom

Disarray and the Democrats

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

Introduction

Whichever apprentice angel it was who was tasked to write out the rough script for this last week or so has been warned repeatedly. Twice the script was sent back with red ink all over it, and “too contrived” scribbled in the margin, but then finally the decision was made to just go with the latest draft because of approaching deadlines. But the warning has been clear — this kind of thing cannot continue.

Atrocious theology, is it not? But it covers the facts, does it not?

Consider the pile-up from just the last week or so. First the DNC introduced a rule change that would allow Bloomberg to buy his way onto the debate platform. That foreboding sense that the Dems are going to stick it to Sanders AGAIN starts to form in the back of one’s mind. They are no doubt purchasing themselves some Biden meltdown insurance (which looks to have been needed), as well as to guarantee a third party run by a very sore Sanders.

Then the impeachment fiasco came down to the point of deciding whether to call witnesses, and the case presented by the House managers was so lame that they couldn’t even flip all the Republican squishes. And if you can’t flip a Republican squish, I am here to inform you that your flipping skills are seriously deficient. And then the day after that, the people who want to manage everybody’s health care for us gave us the treat of the Iowa Election Debacle (IED) that somebody left by the side of the road, just waiting for all the unwitting Dems to drive by. They want to run the free world, and were jockeying for that honored position by demonstrating that they couldn’t organize a two-car funeral.

And so then, the day after that, Trump sailed into the halls of Congress to deliver the SOTU speech with the wind at his back.
A petulant Pelosi tore up her copy of the speech as soon as he was done, thus endearing herself to millions of viewers. And now today, the Senate is expected to vote him a full acquittal, dropping him back into the presidential campaign as good as new, bestowing on him the certified status of Washington Outsider that he can couple with the status of Successful Incumbent.

A Brief Caution

Now I acknowledge that there is much here to enjoy. And yes, children, let us enjoy it. I do think that a responsible Christian can partake of such enjoyment without giving way to sinful levels of schadenfreude. But, however, comma . . .

It seems clear to me that the good Lord really is giving the Democratic Party a richly deserved butt-whooping. But the attitude of the Republicans ought not to be that of a kid across the street, enjoying the misfortune of his erstwhile playmate. It ought rather to be the attitude of a younger brother who is realizing that he is quite possibly next. When you strike the fool, the simple learn wisdom (Prov. 19:25), and the lesson everybody ought to be learning right about now is just how easy it is for God to upend the counsels of the wise.

Back to the Campaign Trail

Writing this two days after the Iowa caucuses, it is still not clear who won the thing. This enables pretty much everybody except for Joe Biden to claim victory, but which he will do anyway, and move on to New Hampshire.

In what follows, realize that there are some elements of prediction here, but they are being offered in a time of rowdy unpredictability, and our lives are a mist anyway. So I offer these observations as one spectator at the circus trying to tell his companion which direction the clowns will do their somersaulting next. This is not an exact science, and I offer them up in a spirit of humility and show business.

What Sanders has going for him is that he comes across as pretty much the only person in the race who actually believes what he is saying. Considering the content of what he is saying, this is actually remarkable, but he reminds you of your crazy but likeable uncle who corners you at Thanksgiving to explain to you how Shakespeare’s plays were actually written by Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, proto-feminist and hero of early socialist theory. He will go far. When he promises free chocolate milk for everybody, he sincerely believes that he has access to that much chocolate milk.

Elizabeth Warren reminds me of a junior high camp counselor who, after three days of rain, wants to get everybody really invested in weaving plastic bracelets all afternoon in the mess hall. She exudes an insincere enthusiasm, or an enthusiastic insincerity, not sure which, and can tell lies just standing there.

Joe Biden is like a deer that got shot by an inept hunter in Iowa, and ran off into the brush to die in a different primary. Not sure which one, but when you think of Joe Biden the one phrase that does not come to mind is “aura of inevitability.” And for someone in Biden’s position, the phrase that must come to mind is “aura of inevitability.” That has already been shattered — and was never that strong to begin with — and it means that Biden has an enormous hill to climb in my view, simply to get back into it.

Amy Klobuchar did well for a relative unknown, and has not yet been given an opportunity for her very own face plant. One waits for the field to clear so that she may take full advantage of that opportunity when it arrives.

Pete Buttigieg is going to discover at some point, perhaps when he makes a serious pitch for black votes in South Carolina, or perhaps at a later time, that there is a serious divide between the gay propaganda from the elites and toffs that people are willing to put up with, on the one hand, contrasted with their visceral and private reaction when they see a guy up on the stage waving at the crowd, holding another dude’s hand. The parroted lines that people have to say to HR in order to keep their jobs is one thing, and the ick factor that can be fully indulged in the privacy of the voting booth is quite another. Buttigieg is a viable candidate in the general election, despite being openly homosexual, because it is the official line that he is such a viable candidate. But that is not the same thing as being a viable candidate.

Final Lesson

And so we should circle back around and apply all this to ourselves. We are the younger brother, whose older brother was being really bad, and who is getting spanked first. Our eyes should not be shining with glee, but rather should be round and as wide and white as tea saucers.

God obviously knows how to strike the proud. He knows how to humble the arrogant. The fact that He is doing so now, as in, right this minute, should make us fear and tremble. “Pride goeth before destruction,and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). It would be a faulty way of reasoning to say that because God is judging them for their arrogance, He must therefore steadfastly refuse to judge us for ours. Wrong lesson, people.