Fantasy of Overturning the Election is Like That of a God


Ross Douthat is a prominent columnist in the NY Times. He is a devout Catholic who is forced to face reality when writing about current affairs while hanging onto myths when writing about religion. He wrote an interesting observation about the myth courts will overturn the Biden victory.

Douthat reviewed how Trump and a branch of the Republican Party created a myth courts would overturn the Biden victory. He says Trump himself has never been able to separate the reality show he participates in as President is different from the real world. But surely many of those Republicans, especially professionals politicians, recognize the difference. They, nevertheless, participate enthusiastically in confusing the public about reality versus myth. Douthat wonders which branch will live on in the Republican Party, the reality or the mythological branch.

Democrats have the same problem but just now on a smaller scale. I heard Bernie Sanders about five years ago at a venue near where I live. He set a crowd on fire with ideas about government providing cheaper health care and college education. His idea was that he could go about the country explaining this and would generate support so powerful conservatives would bend to his will. When he said this in debates with Hillary she just shook her head in disbelief. Now Biden is appointing his cabinet of realists and the Party's left is disappointed. So far they are tolerating reality.

The founding fathers seemed to understand the destructive role of myth in societies. They included in the Constitution that the government shall not have a state religion. Paraphrasing, they said no one mythology can be allowed to stamp out all others. 

Mythologies were allowed to float around. Right now there is the one about overturning the election. Just before there was the one that one fertilized cell is human being. And, how about the ones like interracial and same sex marriage, changing genders is a violation of some moral principle and there is an actual god or gods passing judgement on all that goes on. These latter myths harm the country and hold back society from what it could accomplish. 

With determination, some bits of myth are buried over time. They live on longer than they should.

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