G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed.” I wonder what Mr. Chesterton would have said about mail-in ballots.

After so many hopeful prayers and earnest efforts to mobilize Christian and conservative voters, the 2020 American presidential election has a really rotten smell about it. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are dragging themselves through a swamp of unprecedented vote-counting to the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House. There has never been an election comeback like this in history, the media organs say; in fact, it’s (quite literally) unbelievable. And while CNN feverishly asserts in their coverage that there is absolutely nothing fishy going on, the truth that something is amiss is only too, too clear. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

It’s just difficult to accept that old Joe Biden, whose base seemed about as energized as the night of the living dead, won more of the popular vote than the messianic Barack Obama did in 2008. Even though President Trump over-performed himself in many ways, and though the numbers stink to high heaven, Joe Biden has proclaimed victory as the 46th President of the United States.

The most surprising thing about all of this is how unsurprising it is. Say what you like about the strange stories being circulated about counting mail-in ballots at the end, or Wisconsin counting more votes than there are voters, or incredible jumps in registration percentages, or 300,000 consecutive Biden votes logged in at 3 am, or the ridiculously razor-thin margins. There is something not so subtle and almost certainly nefarious at work here to overthrow the president. As John P. Kennedy said to his son John F. Kennedy before JFK’s narrow victory over Nixon, “Don’t buy a single vote more than necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.” It seems someone deep in the Biden campaign may have torn a page from that playbook.

As President Trump himself said on Thursday, “if you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

We all know it. This election is, in all likelihood, cut from the very same cloth as the Russiagate witch hunt and the bogus impeachment. Which is to say, there is another Democrat plot afoot to topple President Trump. Personally, I’m not one for wild conspiracy theories, but it is not wildly conspiratorial to imagine that excellent advantage has been taken of the Covid-19 crisis and mail-in ballots were made a Democratic sine qua non. Of course, everyone could go to Walmart, but in-person voting was dangerous.

While there’s something deeply disturbing about how all of this is playing out before our eyes, there’s something even more disturbing in the brazen complacency on the Left. Even progressive social media groups are acknowledging that something shady is happening behind the scenes with the mail-in ballots and the unusual number jumps. But, to the members of such groups, the ends justify the means. Even if what is happening is cheating and immoral, anything is acceptable in order to remove a racist fascist from the White House. Trump is mean and he’s orange, and so he must go—by hook or by crook.

And that’s what’s wrong with the world. As Dostoyevsky said, “if God doesn’t exist, everything is permitted.”

But this election is far from over, despite the fist pumping on the Left. Efforts are underway to bring on the investigations that the circumstances warrant. In Pennsylvania, for instance, the Commonwealth’s House Majority Leader, Kerry Benninghoff is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to block the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that allowed mail-in ballots to be dropped off in boxes three days following election Tuesday. Another strange aspect about the Pennsylvania mail-in ballots was the late removal of the Green Party candidate, seemingly giving as much opportunity to Joe Biden as possible. Benninghoff said these rulings have created “shenanigans” which are “opportunities for fraud,” and the PA House is joining a mounting fight for voter integrity and a just election.

Jesus Christ was tried and found guilty by the Sanhedrin in a clandestine, rigged trial in the dead of night. Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ played up this cloak-and-dagger aspect well, showing a corrupt priesthood motivated by power and politics and willing to be surreptitious for the sake of advantage. Politics hasn’t changed much in 2,000 years, and Christ’s followers should be well used to backroom dealings and political skullduggery.

If we do lose in the end (God forbid), once the votes are recounted and all the lawsuits have been settled, we will fight on and with a will, knowing well that politicians are like diapers, as the saying goes, and need changing often and for the same reason. It’s all in how you look at it, and Catholics have the right viewpoint. We don’t mind losing the battle, because our war is already won. We do not put our trust in princes.

Chesterton’s words about the purity of American democracy may be out of date in some respects, but we can look to the English prophet’s declaration from “The Ballad of the White Horse” to inspire us as we watch this uninspiring farce unfold.

That though all lances split on you,
All swords be heaved in vain,
We have more lust again to lose
Than you to win again.

So be it. This indomitable attitude is why good Catholic folks are feared by the Left. Our God won by losing, and so will we. Win or lose, we will pray, and we will be glad, for our help is in the Name of the Lord. We have, as Chesterton sang, “the joy of giants, the joy without a cause.” Of course, that doesn’t mean that we ought not to oil up our guns, as an old teacher of mine advised me yesterday.

Let’s pray especially to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Americas and the unborn, that Trump will be able to prove that he won this election (as we all know he did—nobody more than “President” Biden) and continue his work to strengthen our nation and defend the unborn. As Mary knows, nothing is impossible with God. It’s never too late for prayers, so let’s pray. Let’s be ready to carry the fight to any battlefield—but let’s pray for four more years of sanity in the meantime.

[Photo credit: Evan El-Amin/Shutterstock.com