How worried should we be about election-related chaos after November 3?
The answer may depend on how close the election turns out to be. If it's close enough in the Electoral College, and if one or two swing states are particularly tight and present opportunities for legal challenges (and of course said opportunities have already been schemed up in the minds of the legal teams of both sides), then Americans could be waiting on a judicial outcome to ascertain the election results.
That's worrisome, but in itself sounds merely like a repeat of the 2000 "hanging chad" election (Bush v. Gore). Two things will make this one different. First, a chaos-agent in the White House. Trump won't wait respectfully for the outcome, he'll roil the waters every single day, stirring up indignation, positing conspiracies, amping up the sense of victimhood and paranoia among his followers.
Secondly, the anti-Trump street-warriors like Antifa will also be stirring things up. I expect "peaceful demonstrations" that are about as peaceful as those we've seen around America in the past few months. Things could get ugly.
All this is disturbing and worrisome, yes, but it is also something that hasn't happened yet and may not happen. I don't recommend losing sleep over such things.
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Yesterday I saw a discussion-thread about how a Christian should respond to all this. I'll have a go at that.
A Christian should always commit his path to the Lord. Pray, seek the peace of the city in which he lives, and in season and out of season follow in the way of Jesus. Remembering that we are sojourners here, citizens of a different kingdom, we realize that no worldly political contest is a fight between light and dark. God does not hang in the balance in this political melee, and neither does the eternal future of any man or woman. Watch and pray, Christian. Watch and pray.
This is not the say that a Christian should not vote or support one candidate or another. This is to say that our hope does not lie in political outcomes. We are no less confident, no less hopeful as we await the coming of our Lord, whether one side wins this battle or another. All this is momentary. We await the eternal. Come, Lord Jesus.
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See also:
Why this pro-life conservative is voting for Biden, by Mona Charen
Do pro-lifers who reject Trump have blood on their hands? By David French
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