Monday
I normally steer clear of political predictions that the sky is falling—we are exposed to far too much hyperbole as it is—but I’m now convinced that the Republicans are in training to overturn future elections and establish minority rule. What we have witnessed since the 2020 election, I now fear, is just a practice run or dress rehearsal for such a move. Along with the January 6 insurrection to stop the certification, I have in mind the 147 members of Congress who voted not to certify the 2020 results; the wave of voter suppression bills introduced by Republican state legislators (250 in 43 states); the GOP purging its election officials who certified that the election was fair; Trump’s “Big Lie” about a stolen election as a litmus test for GOP membership; and the elevation of conspiracy-spouting fruitcakes (Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz) and power hungry cynics (Elise Stefanik, Josh Hawley) over principled conservatives (Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney). I’m no longer confident that enough people will play fair to make the system work.
When I think back to works where I developed my belief that fair play will prevail over treachery, C. S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian comes to mind. Narnia’s rebel forces, led by Peter, are trying to regain the throne for Caspian from the evil usurper Miraz. Because the Narnians are outnumbered and out-armed, Peter proposes what Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani proposed to Trump supporters prior to their storming the Capitol: trial by combat.
The combat is suspenseful as Miraz is the better fighter, but it has a couple of twists that struck me as a child. One is that, when Miraz stumbles on a tree root, Peter acts according to chivalric principles and doesn’t take advantage:
A great shout arose from the Old Narnians. Miraz was down—not struck by Peter, but face downwards, having tripped on a tussock. Peter stepped back, waiting for him to rise.
“Oh bother, bother, bother,” said Edmund [Peter’s brother] to himself. “Need he be as gentlemanly as all that? I suppose he must. Comes of being a Knight and a High King. I suppose it is what Aslan would like. But that brute will be up again in a minute and then——”
Miraz, however, has treacherous subordinates who have been eyeing the throne and who, in fact, tricked him into fighting with Peter in the first place. When Miraz goes down, they break the rules:
But “that brute” never rose. The Lords Glozelle and Sopespian had their own plans ready. As soon as they saw their King down they leaped into the lists crying, “Treachery! Treachery! The Narnian traitor has stabbed him in the back while he lay helpless. To arms! To arms, Telmar!”
They are gaslighting, of course. While there’s no video footage of the fight, everyone has seen what actually happened. And then there’s Glozelle doing to Miraz what Stafanik is doing to Cheney for a House leadership position. (Cheney, while an arch conservative, is on the outs with the GOP for insisting that Biden’s election was legitimate):
Peter hardly understood what was happening. He saw two big men running towards him with drawn swords. Then the third Telmarine had leaped over the ropes on his left. “To arms, Narnia! Treachery!” Peter shouted. If all three had set upon him at once he would never have spoken again. But Glozelle stopped to stab his own King dead where he lay: “That’s for your insult, this morning,” he whispered as the blade went home.
Glozelle and Sopespian have every reason to believe their treachery will work. After all, they have the superior forces. But because a higher principle governs Narnia, the good guys win. Aslan is “on the move” and has awakened the trees. In a scene very much like Tolkien’s Ents taking out the goblins in the Battle of Helm’s Deep, Narnia’s forces do the same to the Telmarines:
But almost before the old Narnians were really warmed to their work they found the enemy giving way. Tough-looking warriors turned white, gazed in terror not on the Old Narnians but on something behind them, and then flung down their weapons, shrieking, “The Wood! The Wood! The end of the world!”
But soon neither their cries nor the sound of weapons could be heard any more, for both were drowned in the ocean-like roar of the Awakened Trees as they plunged through the ranks of Peter’s army, and then on, in pursuit of the Telmarines. Have you ever stood at the edge of a great wood on a high ridge when a wild south-wester broke over it in full fury on an autumn evening? Imagine that sound. And then imagine that the wood, instead of being fixed to one place, was rushing at you; and was no longer trees but huge people; yet still like trees because their long arms waved like branches and their heads tossed and leaves fell round them in showers. It was like that for the Telmarines. It was a little alarming even for the Narnians.
The hope here is that some deep dimension of the nation will save the day. For Lewis, a combination of Christianity, English decency, and a spiritualized nature come to the rescue. I’ll still put my hopes in The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, an independency judiciary, and also common decency.
I’m just less sure than I used to be.