For many Christians, Advent is a a time anticipation for our ultimate salvation via the incarnation of our Messiah Jesus the Christ. To get to that point, the faithful are asked to prepare by contemplating the end times and final judgment. That is why the liturgical readings are prophetical and often tinged with a sense of calamity. This preparation exposes hard ultimate truth and raises questions as to how we comport ourselves in the here and now.
In our culture we prefer the unbridled joy of Christmas Carols rather than the brooding meditations of Advent hymns, like "Wake, Oh Wake" and "Veni Emmanuel". One of the new contributions to the Advent repertoire is "Mary Did You Know?", a Protestant carol written by Mark Lowry 1984 and later set to music in 1991 by Buddy Green of the Gaither Vocal Band. The lyric were written as reflections between acts of a Christmas play which posed hard questions as to whether the Blessed Virgin Mary understood everything that would be implicated by her fiat, her assent to what God asked for in the Annunciation.
In the wake of the instances of election irregularities and accusations of coordinated voter fraud in Election 2020, Eric Metaxas did a a filk written by by John Zimrak and produced by Chris Hines of the contemporary Christmas-tide classic in "Biden Did You Know?
This video could be dismissed as a piece of propaganda from a Trump supporter blowing off steam at the victory of his opponent former Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE). More sympathetic listeners might find it hard to hear as Mr. Metaxas is not a natural soloist. But the video raises some uncomfortable questions that the presumed President Elect must address as nearly half of Americans are under the impression that Election 2020 was stolen. Metaxas combined pop cultural film references, graphics which illustrated his points along with video evidence indicated election night Malarkey (sic), such as the Fulton County Georgia suitcase of hidden ballots, the Detroit TCF Cobo Center hidden vote count center and CNN's chyron of over a hundred thousand ballots instantly switching columns.
Even though Election 2020 was conducted during the COVID19 pandemic, the Biden presidential campaign was conducted in an extremely unorthodox fashion. During the General Election campaign, Biden basically hid in his basement with a message of defeating Trump and COVID19 using a wholesale campaign strategy. Biden ads ran heavily, along with allies like the Lincoln Project. Other campaign events included poorly attended Zoom calls and scripted "interviews" with friendly media (and Biden reading off a teleprompter or being corrected by his wife DOCTOR Jill Biden--sic).
During the normally intense two months before the November 3rd vote, the Biden campaign called "lids" (no news today) at nine am for a fortnight. Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) did not try to outshine the top of the ticket on the hustings. When Joe Biden deigned to be seen in public, he mostly appeared in Delaware or within even driving distance of Philadelphia. Such "rallies" were more media events, with basely a score of attendings sitting in COVID correct socially distanced circles.
This Biden/Harris unorthodox campaign conduct sharply contrasted with President Trump, who help scores of rallies which attracted tens of thousands of attendees per event, many unruly off the cuff pressers. Donald Trump definitely won 10 million votes more than 2016, with marked increases of support from African American and Hispanic voters. Trump had coat tails, with Republicans winning 27 of 27 key House races and the GOP only losing two Senate seats when they had 23 races to defend. Trump won 18 of 19 bellwether counties. Yet supposedly Trump lost by six million Popular Votes and lost several battleground states by small margins bolstered by midnight ballot drops thusJoe Biden wins 306 Electoral Votes. In the abstract, that doesn't make sense, but these facts may be derided as sour grapes.
In retrospect, there were several odd remarks from Democrats about the Biden campaign the post election aftermath that when they are juxtaposed with the election anomalies that give a skeptical body politic cause for pause as to "Biden did you know?".
One of Joe Biden's persistent traits is being a gaffe maker So often, his off the cuff remarks seem blunderously off-message, wrongfully boastful, and actually quite odd (e.g. "Corn Pop"). I was willing to consider those moments as being the Biden gaffe machine, which has been heighted due to obvious cognitive challenges and overplaying his "aw-shucks Uncle Joe" persona. But sometimes these gaffes reveal uncomfortable truths, albeit in a clumsy manner. A pithy maxim in the District of Calamity is that a gaffe is a politician telling the truth. Joe Biden has said: "A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth and telling the truth has never hurt me." OK, let's test that premise.
One of the most striking verbal blunders was when Joe Biden actually said that [Democrats] had put together the biggest and most extensive voter fraud organization in history. Wow, what a gaffe!
Perhaps he meant to say "Get Out the Vote" organization. But let's examine this gaffe with the facts. In the 116th Congress of 2019, Speaker Nancy Pelosi put forth HR1, which was a measure that sought to imposes mail in voting nationwide. Note this was a year BEFORE the Wuhan Flu reached the shores of America. When that measure did not pass, a couple of COVID relief bills were held up in reconciliation bills because Speaker Pelosi insisted that liberal mail in voting laws be imposed nationwide. The Democrat National Committee spent considerable resources shepherding mail in voting laws in the states, despite the fact that the Carter/Baker Commission concluded in 2004 that mail in voting was prone to fraud. So was it a Biden gaffe or Joe telling an inconvenient truth?
Prior to November 3rd, there were warnings from Democrats and the media that because of COVID19 that we would not know the results of the election immediately. In fact, I recall some Democrats warning that it might appear that they would be down but in the end they would be victorious. Former Democrat Presidential candidate First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton implored Joe Biden not concede if the election is close, perhaps ruing her concession which complicated "The Resistance" after the 2016 Trump victory.
What is more likely is that Democrat leaders realized that when then Vice President Albert Gore, Jr. conceded and then retracted the concession after the 2000 election that they lost some of the narrative which impeded their victory in the contested election coverage. I believe that there was so much pressure on President Trump to promise to abide by the election results, and after November 3rd to extract a concession is to give the psychological impression that the cake is baked and to normalize the presumptive Biden/Harris Presidency. But true to character, President Trump is a fighter and chooses to brawl in the legal system for what he believes was a wrong result due to illegitimate votes.
Three days before the election, in a prominent rally in the Motor City along with Barack Obama, Joe Biden said something truly strange: "I don't need you to get me elected, I need you once I'm elected...". Sure, a candidate might long for support for his policies (whatever the actually are) once in office, but at a Get Out The Vote Rally affirmatively saying "I don't need you to get me elected"--Huh? It's hard to explain that away as a simple verbal blunder.
One other rhetorical oddity which makes one wonder "Biden did you know?" is how readily Biden publicly sees his departure from the Oval Office. Quite understandably, it is prudent for a frail, gaffe prone 78 year old to announce that he was chary about running for a second term. But towards the end of the campaign in Tampa, Biden referred to the Harris/Biden Administration. Politicians tend to be ego driven so juxtaposing your running mate as top of the ticket might be telling the public something. That theme was echoed by Kamala Harris proclaiming "The Harris Administration under Joe Biden as President." It's it's kind of presumptive or is it a plan. Then there was a the post election Biden/Harris CNN interview when Joe claimed that if we ever really disagree, then I'll develop a disease and resign.
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Biden was comparing his relationship with President Biden and applying it to the Harris Administration with President Biden (sic). One would expect such action with a subordinate. But isn't Biden supposed to be Chief Executive of the United States? In and of itself, this might have been another one of Joe being Joe. Yet a month before Election 2020, Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a bill to create a commission to study applying the 25th Amendment to Presidents unable to carry out their duties? Coincidence or messaging?
Advent carols are all about anticipation of a messiah as an ultimate truth. Thus we ought apply Advent principles to our own age. The truth is that regardless of who prevails in the Election 2020 overtime, certainly we won't find a messiah.
I may be more like in Monty Python's Life of Brian: "There's a mess here alright but there's no messiah."
Alas, to shift pop metaphors, I fear that it may be more of a dark winter and winter is coming.
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