It has been a couple of days since the 2024 US Election, and on the whole I am pleased but not particularly surprised by the results. I would have liked a more decisive victory and to have seen Republican pickups in the Senate in places like Michigan, Nevada, Virginia, and the like, but the result is one that gives me hope that the eminent decline of the United States into dissolution or complete decadent failure and total economic and moral collapse has at least been delayed by years rather than a clear and present danger for myself and my fellow American citizens. Given the decisiveness of the result–a victory that stands at over four million popular votes for Trump in the popular vote and a decisive victory in all seven of the swing states that were considered toss-ups leading to a solid electoral college result–one would think that soul searching would be on the agenda for those people who are less pleased than I am with the election results. Yet it appears, at least anecdotally as I look at the responses of people on social media (including people who I happen to know whose anger at election results I have been able to see while refraining from commenting on them directly, that such soul searching is not on the agenda. I would like to briefly examine why this is the case.

For my first example, I would like to discuss a down-ballot issue I became familiar with mostly because advertising concerning Propositions 3 and 4 in Florida were absolutely plastered on every advertising break when I was staying with my folks recently in Florida. I became familiar with the lies that were used to try to promote a regulated marijuana monopoly that would seek to provide revenue through the encouragement of public drug use, as well as the lies concerning abortion that sought to present the murder of innocent and blameless unborn children as being vital to the health and safety of mothers, which is absolutely abominable. The people peddling these lies, particularly those about abortion, were shameless, and in the aftermath of the defeat of both propositions, the proponents who pushed lies in order to deceive the electorate into supporting them appear not to have any regrets for their behavior or for their reprehensible and abominable worldview. What I saw, instead, was a high school classmate of mine who (along with her echo chamber buddies) was of the highly mistaken view that those who oppose abortion are savage troglodytes who threaten the well-being of civilized women who savagely wish to slaughter the inconvenient unborn. The truth is quite the contrary, in that the babykillers are the savages whose hostility to innocent life marks them as savages unfit to be considered to be civilized and decent members of the human race. Yet we should not hold our breath waiting for them to examine themselves and ponder their own dark, murderous hearts.

Similarly, it was not uncommon in the aftermath of the election to read reports on organized left-wing rioting that was going on in various cities. This is by no means a new phenomenon, but win or lose, the contemporary left can be relied upon to celebrate or mourn any sort of dramatic political or sporting event with some casual destruction of property. In this particular case, there appears to be a left-wing association of looting with the misguided demands for reparations on the part of professional victims of the criminal classes of society who combine political leftism with a fondness for violence and the destruction and seizure of other people’s property. That such people consider this sort of wicked behavior–which should be punished to the furthest extent possible under the law as urban terrorism–as justice only demonstrates how demented their worldview happens to be and how far they have fallen from any sort of real moral sense that is worth having or celebrating. Yet we cannot expect such people, who despite their obviously wrong conduct are without any doubts as to the justice and morality of their views and behavior, to see themselves as they really are considering how blinded they have been by their own self-righteousness.

To add to this rogue’s gallery of behavior that has been obvious in the past couple of days, we must add the weighty charge of hypocrisy that is always being tossed by these moral pygmies at those who have and profess moral standards but find themselves struggling against sins as is the lot of all humanity, alas. For the last four years, election denial has been a charge that has often been tossed at those on the right by those on the left. This is in spite of the fact that solid evidence exists of there being very questionable conduct regarding the counting, collection, and even the amount of votes and the timing of their release in 2020. Similar stunts of suppressing conservative votes in Pennsylvania and in smuggling illegal votes in places like Wisconsin were noted and prevented in 2024, demonstrating the bad faith actions of Democrats when it comes to engaging in free and fair elections for all who wish to see to see. Moreover, we see people like former Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey (to say nothing of the delusional non-governor of Georgia in the recent past) engaging in election denial themselves when the results have been close but have reflected the genuine decision of the people. I think I can safely say that many people wish that elections were not so important to us, and that enough was out of the hands of government that it would scarcely matter who ruled over us because they would not have the power to ruin our lives, destroy our property, throw us in jail on trumped up charges, fine us with bogus regulations, and even invade our homes to kill our pets, but alas, we live in such a situation. In such a light it is of the utmost importance that elections are run without fraud to the greatest extent possible, with secure mechanisms for determining the choice of interested and eligible voters and in counting quickly enough so that even the appearance of ballot stuffing and harvesting is avoided. That such a thing is controversial suggests the real threats to our republic that exist within the Democracy.

All of these examples, and many more I could summon if I wished to, demonstrate that the lack of soul searching on the part of the left suggests an absence of a soul, which one must first have in order to search one’s soul. In place of mea culpas, we find angry recriminations, the constant playing of the blame game, and a total lack of personal responsibility. Yet the point of noting and criticizing such behavior is not to see the lack of a soul in other people, but rather to point out the sorts of behavior we must avoid in ourselves. It has always been easy to see the specks in the eyes of others. It has always been a trivial task in a world full of imperfect people to find the flaws that exist in others. What is and has always been far more difficult is for us to examine ourselves, to ponder what we could say and do differently, and whether we behave in a better way than those who we criticize and condemn. In evil times like our own, it is not hard to look around and see plenty of evidence of the lack of soulfulness and genuine moral sense in those around us. Do we, however, provide evidence of soul searching and reflection within ourselves such that we can avoid the common error of being certain in being just and righteous in our own conduct while being among the chiefs of sinners? Ultimately, those people we see around us who lack the capacity to search their souls will have to answer to their Creator and Judge for the way they have lived their lives. But we will have to answer for our own conduct. How that trial will proceed is dependent in large part on our own ability to search our souls here and now. Hopefully, we can set a good example to those who are willing to see it.