It was inevitable, I suppose.  And yet can one discuss inevitability when it comes to the statistically impossible?  Yesterday, The NBC News projection desk declared the two way runoff for Los Angeles Mayor come fall was to be between incumbent Karen “Nero” Bass and upstart Nithya “Lenin” Raman.  This projection appears despite the fact that Republican Spencer Pratt was quite solidly in the second slot for almost a week of counting.  Given what a complete mess the California election laws are these days it will be impossible to separate the legal from the wrongful from the unlawful in the conduct of the election and the count.  But it is painfully clear shenanigans have occurred.  Given the impossibility of corrective actions, what lessons can we learn from this fiasco?

First lesson – Democrats are about the naked pursuit of power.  Power they use to take money from some and spread it out to others.  Given the utter and undeniable failure of the current Bass administration, combined with the glaring obviousness of shenanigans with the vote count, it is starkly clear that serving the people of Los Angeles is way down the list of priorities for this bunch.

Second lesson – There is no level to which LA Dems will not stoop to maintain that power.  This election count is glaringly flawed – almost proudly so.  Even the appearance of propriety has been avoided.  They do not seem to care about looking legit – only being in power.  By next election I would not be surprised if local TV reported openly on the post election day distribution and collection of pre-marked ballots in homeless encampments.

Third lesson – the nation as a whole cannot allow itself to be dragged down by the slow motion disaster that is California.  I am not sure what mechanism(s) are best to do this, but the threat is very real.  California’s population and economy are such that its problems will inevitably become our problems.  And its problems are about to get huge.

Final lesson – we cannot become them.  It is oh so tempting to “cheat back.”  We must remember that the real loss suffered in this election is not the election or the operations of the administration that takes shape in its wake.  The real loss is in the principles of democracy on which the nation was founded.  If we allow ourselves to “cheat back” those principles become lost forever.

Jesus could have called down armies from Heaven, vanquished the Romans and the corrupt Jewish officials of His day and ruled righteously – but He did not.  He chose to play a long game because His goal was not merely to win, but to remake us so that the principles of His rule were our principles as well.  Thus He could leave us to our own rule.  The long game involved Him suffering the ultimate loss – of His life.  Likewise, we do not just want to win – we want to restore democracy – that will not happen if we cheat back.

California is clearly corrupt – we cannot become likewise.

ADDENDUM:  Apparently the Pentagon got the message I tried to send clearly in yesterday’s post.  They removed labels from their new religious classification system.  And thus they prove the value of learning from your mistakes – something Democrats seem most loathe to do.