The Pre-Election Uncertainty

There’s a strange quiet in the run-up to the election, when we know that everyone has already chosen their “side”, even if they haven’t yet voted, and we’re just waiting for the tallies. Many of us don’t trust the totals, but we’re forced to wait for them anyway. Even those who attempt to turn a blind eye to the political saga can feel the tension in the air. It’s an anxious desire for it all to end, to know what the future holds, and to somehow remove that sense of powerlessness.

Yet while Tuesday night (or Wednesday morning) will give us a glimpse into some of our near battles, we will remain largely incognizant of what lies ahead. The results will merely show more clearly the path that we are on as a result of widespread cultural decay.

If the election is now a referendum on abortion, as Kamala seems to have embraced, then it’s a direct judgment on how far our society has fallen. So many not only wish to defend abortion’s legality, but they consider that to be their primary issue—even while knowing that their perceived ‘need’ for abortions can be stopped solely by not having sex. Nobody is in favor of forcing women to have sexual relations against their will, so nobody is against women’s “choices” until those “choices” affect the life of another. Said differently, the “decision” to have a child is made in the bedroom.

It’s horrific that we could stand in a moment where roughly half of society would consider the desire to have sex without fertility as something that they need to be enshrined by the government, up to and including the death of their future children, who have not yet been conceived. If ever there was a clear marker for our celebration of the self above all that is innocent and good, this must surely be it.

Regardless of the result of the election, there are some things that will stand true:

• Human leaders (even those we choose) will disappoint us and will at least occasionally betray us. They are not who we are called to trust.

• This is not our True Home, so if you feel out of place in a country that rejects goodness, keep your sights on what matters.

• The political saga is a mere reflection of the culture around us—and that will always be where our primary battle lies.

• Standing up for innocent human life is never the wrong decision.

• We are granted the graces to handle today's battles, not those that are not yet ours to fight, so don’t allow your anxieties to borrow rubble from the wreckage of tomorrow.