Laws and procedures exist for the good reason that they are, at times, indispensable. Now seems such a time. Let’s rely on them, then, and say: The media does not “call” elections, and the people have not spoken until their Electors and Representatives have. Reasonable persons with sound criteria have a good reason to be at least wary about the vote tabulation so far, while major players in our society seem so unconcerned with truth, and so invested in a partisan political result, that they can have no claim to a general trust in their fairness and judgments.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Just so you know …
… It's Not Over - The Catholic Thing.
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Technically, the president isn't the president until sworn in.
ReplyDeleteWe have been using the media projections to determine who has won -- it's a slam dunk for Biden, no matter if someone's investigation finds some fraud somewhere. The Catholic position is in congratulating him -- a Catholic.
The dead vote theory has been investigated and put to bed as having any bearing on the results, and not just in Philly, where Smokin Joe did not vote. But it raises an important issue, that I became aware of, having voted early. What if a piano fell on my head and killed me before November 3? Would my mail in vote then count? Let's say someone really had fraudulently (or should I say jokingly) voted as Joe Frazier and I had died before the 3rd, both. These issues are worth changing procedures for, if we can make improvements. Let's face it, with a fake ID, I could have voted as Frank Wilson. Fraud fraud everywhere.
The transition needs to take place with elacrity, and here, the media projections have been important. When CNN annouced their projection, my sister said on social media, "It's official." But, I had spoken to her on the phone a day earlier, after Vox made their projection. She knew that, and corrected my bad assumption, saying that it was "official" to her. It was so "official" to me 2 days earlier, and it seemed the reason no one was calling the obvious, was that there were uncounted votes, the provisionals and the ones still at the post office. But and so, I agree with much of the spirit anyway of Pakaluck's first half.
Here's fraud, though, being in charge of the USPS as POTUS, knowing for months that there would be mucho mail-in votes come fall, and not being prepared, to such a degree that at least thousands of votes that were mailed on time, did not show up on time to be counted. This is something that we know needs to be further investigated such that we insure it never happens again. Not even the courts stepping in could prevent it.
Let's get to the crux. How is it, that Pakaluck views voters' passion as demonic frenzy on the Biden side, but not on the Trump side? This is where he loses anyone who voted for Biden, similar to when Hillary said that many Trump supporters were deplorables.
DeleteWhat demonic tendency? He wants to take issue with Archbishop Gomez stating the obvious, that "we recognize that Joseph R. Biden, Jr., has received enough votes to be elected the 46th President" -- the "official" Catholic position now -- but don't burn in hell yet if you disagree. And there is a further issue, as when Archbishop Gregory addressed another Catholic's demonization statement, saying that a Catholic's vote should be based on "the full panoply of the church’s social teaching."
And he means, not just the abortion issue, but that there are other social issues, that the wording of the Roman Catholic position may lead people to believe that if they voted for a Democrat, they would automatically be excommunicated, or as Rev. James Altman put it, risk "the fires of hell."
As a protestant (a Congregationalist, the religion of the Pilgrims), raised in a Catholic neighborhood, I look at all of this as coming from people with ideas. And if I go into St. Michaels church, which I have many times, or get married in St. Mary's, which I did once, I still do not take communion, while being sure that I will not burn in hell.
It's not that the Bible prohibits abortion in any way. The strongest is where the Old Testament punishment for killing a pregnant woman is expressed, egregious no matter ensoulment -- and yet there is where Old Testament instructions are given for abortion. The church's arguments hinge on not being sure about ensoulment, and erring on the side of caution.
Ensoulment, this perennial mystery, whatever makes us each, divides us. It caused fundamentalist leaders to back Trump, not because he was a good Christian, but to say that God was using Trump for his purposes.
Abortion is the crux. The risk of God's rejection.