Surviving the Election, a Cheering Podcast
Thomas Fleming
Thomas Fleming is president of the Fleming Foundation. He is the author of six books, including The Morality of Everyday Life and The Politics of Human Nature, as well as many articles and columns for newspapers, magazines,and learned journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Greek from the College of Charleston. He served as editor of Chronicles: a Magazine of American Culture from 1984 to 2015 and president of The Rockford Institute from 1997-2014. In a previous life he taught classics at several colleges and served as a school headmaster in South Carolina
I dread the coming “National Mask Mandate” (I HATE the masks and the superstitious cowardice they represent) and the likelihood of a “National Lockdown” to battle the COVID hysteria. I dread “Build Back Better” and the obvious push for globalism, especially regarding what that will do to personal finances. I also dread a federal government attack on Homeschooling, which I fear is inevitable, even if it’s through some sort of “Common Core” initiative to mandate “Race and Gender Sensitive Curriculum” be used by all homeschoolers. To think that the Republican turncoats will actually fight any of this or the eventual Socialist agenda is to think way, way, way too highly of Republicans. I also dread the mass Amnesty that is all but guaranteed and the “Biden Effect” on immigration and refugees, which should surge to many, many times what it was under Obama (and pretty much cementing Democrat control of the entire country for the rest of her existence). Again, Republicans will oppose this the way a wet piece of toilet paper would oppose a cannonball.
However, I have nothing but unmitigated disdain for any of the Puritan harpies of the Pro-Life movement who hated Trump and who voted “Third Party” lest they soil their lily white fingers on the Bad Orange Man. That the Pro-Life movement will see everything it gained under Trump reversed a hundred fold is obvious, and the fact that the so-called Pro-Lifers couldn’t bring themselves to support the most Pro-Life President since Roe V. Wade is proof that the movement is too stupid to continue to exist. May it die forever so that Christians can go back to believing the actual Gospel and “Seek First the Kingdom of God” and not fall all over themselves to hold up women having children out of wedlock (but at least not murdering those children) as paragons of the most laudable virtue. If nothing else, that’s one silver lining I’ll enjoy with this hurricane of storm clouds on the horizon.
I guess we can always look on the bright side. At least we’re not in New Zealand!
Dr. Fleming, I really enjoyed this podcast. I responded on Facebook to your saying that our U.S. Presidents through history were not christian, I asked about President Jefferson Davis, CSA not USA, but still American. You responded that to the best of your knowledge he was christian. I know I’m not on the actual point of your statement on Facebook or this podcast. However I’m intrigued by your statements on this so much. Can you imagine walking into a church, a democrat, or republican function and saying “today I am going to talk about the only christian American president in our history…”. You give a brief pause as the audience ponders Washington, Adams, Carter,…etc. Then you exclaim “this being President Jefferson Davis…”! I would love to see the expressions in the room at the mentioning of the president of the CSA being America’s only Christian president in history. Awesome ❗
Jeff Davis carried devotional readings with him at all times in war and peace. He was in church when he lost the war and Lincoln was at the theatre.
It doesn’t seem the Prolifers votes would have mattered, nor anyone else’s. Any extra vote would have been carefully offset by a mail-in votes in those states where it mattered.
It scares me that they didn’t even feel the need to be subtle about it. Watching the vote counts halt for the night, then remain halted in the big cities in those states while the rest were tallied, then suddenly start increasing for Biden couldn’t be any more transparent. Maybe there was no way to keep it subtle; the president received significantly more votes than in the previous election so maybe there was no way to keep the fix within the limits of plausible denial.
Instead of putting up with the insufferable commentary of a TV network, I searched google for “election” and used the live election map which came up on the search results page, which updated every time new information was received without having to refresh the page.
The Kosovo Liberation Army’s candidate showed to be leading in Virginia after only 1% of votes were cast, showing the state as light blue, and then Virginia darkened to the darker blue of a KLA victory after only about 3% of votes were cast, as if the KLA had already won that state outright. This, despite the fact that more votes in that state were showing as having been cast for Trump than for the KLA. This remained true for the rest of the night, with Virginia being counted as a KLA victory but Trump showing as leading in numbers of votes, until I went to bed when the contest stalled like a balking mule at a small stream. I believe Trump actually won Virginia, but that the fix was in in that state even before the voting started.
I believe Trump also won Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine, and perhaps even Nevada.
To Clyde Wilson’s point, in the Confederate museum in New Orleans, (it was not burned down today but the day is not over yet), there is a crown of thorns sent to Jefferson Davis from Pious IX. Both the Pope and Davis were imprisoned by forces backed by the same zeitgeist, the former by the Freemason Garibaldi and the latter by the Gnostic terrorists who won the war. And here a quick confession to Clyde, at least one of the cigars I enjoyed with you at the Abbeville conference was a Henry Clay. Despite their namesake, they are actually good slow-burning cigars. Whenever I smoke one, to ease my weak conscience, I picture him burning in effigy.
By Hilaire Belloc
Sally is gone that was so kindly,
Sally is gone from Ha’nacker Hill
And the Briar grows ever since then so blindly;
And ever since then the clapper is still…
And the sweeps have fallen from Ha’nacker Mill.
Ha’nacker Hill is in Desolation:
Ruin a-top and a field unploughed.
And Spirits that call on a fallen nation,
Spirits that loved her calling aloud,
Spirits abroad in a windy cloud.
Spirits that call and no one answers
Ha’nacker’s down and England’s done.
Wind and Thistle for pipe and dancers,
And never a ploughman under the Sun:
Never a ploughman. Never a one.
Mr. Wilson,
I agree with you about Virginia. I was watching the numbers on the state election website, which had running updates by county. Trump was doing remarkably well in northern Virginia throughout the night. I actually remarked to family members, most of whom are not in Virginia, that Trump just might land Virginia despite what the media were saying. He was doing pretty well up in Fairfax, Loudoun, etc after a significant number of votes had been counted (I want to say maybe 30 or 40 per cent returns, but admittedly there were a lot of numbers going around that night and I did not take any screenshots).
At one point, Bret Baier of Fox asked their stats guy if he was sure Virginia should really be called for Biden and the stats guy stood by his numbers. There was some back and forth and the segment ended with Bret Baier telling the stats guy, maybe incredulously, to watch Virginia. At that point I was confident enough to bet my children a Hershey’s bar each – the big ones! – if Biden took Virginia. (Please don’t get the wrong impression. Staying up a little late watching election returns is an off-routine treat and one of which we made a fun evening.)
Needless to say, the next day Virginia was suddenly all about Biden and the Northern Virginia counties, which had been showing a modest Biden advantage, were suddenly way off the chart for him. Maybe it is possible that on election night the counters were just working through a part of the heap that was especially dense with Trump ballots. I guess there’s not much anyone could do even if fraud were shown in broad daylight.
Anyway, whatever Trump’s faults, the only one I hold against him is that I started paying attention to cable news again because of him.
But the most aggravating thing is that I got maybe one nibble off those Hershey bars.
I have often told people how I enjoy reading biographies. Obviously, one gets to know so much more about an historical figure by immense reading on that person. One unfortunate aspect is that reading a good biography usually uncovers some very unpleasant aspects about that person that can shatter the preconceived image in our minds.
Of all the many biographies I have read, there is only one to date in which I have come away with a higher opinion of that person than I had when I went into it. And that person is Jefferson Davis. Particularly, I recommend the three-volume work by Hudson Strode. It is marvelous.