UFOs, Ancient Aliens, And The Democrat Race

The impression, possibly fostered by Fr Schmitz and his Bible in a Year podcast, has been forming in my mind for a while that belief in space aliens is a form of idolatry. It's been enough to make me put a limit on the shows I watch on History that cover the subject. Here's an example of what's begun to bother me, an episode of Ancient Aliens that aired Aug 26, 2022:

Ancient cultures around the world often referred to the gods as the "Immortals" - but could they have encountered extraterrestrial beings that had achieved eternal life? And if these visitors genetically engineered the human race, as Ancient Astronaut Theorists suggest, is it our destiny to become immortals as well?

Note how quickly the story elides from archaeology through sci-fi to immortality, which is the province of religion -- if we somehow believe strongly enough that the ancient aliens were immortal, then maybe we can live forever ourselves, or sorta-kinda something like that. Nobody ascribes much to Presbyterianism any more, but the ancient aliens are becoming a real option. Those offer real hope for the human condition!

What interests me is that there's actually so little evidence for extraterrestrial life in the modern era, especially, say, post-1600, and even less now in the era of space probes and radio telescopes, that people are forced to impute evidence of UFOs into Egyptian tomb paintings or Mayan calendars. Doesn't that say something about how little concrete evidence of alien life forms we can find now, using scientific tools?

Actually, there's far more evidence for even the wishy-washiest version of Presbyterianism than there is for space aliens, but this is something millions of people apparently refuse to see. I'm starting to see an oddly similar mindset taking hold among a certain faction of Democrats, to wit, the idea that somewhere out in space, there must be a Democrat who can replace Biden and beat Trump. Douglas Schoen, whom up to now I had thought to be more grounded, writes in The Hill:

[T]here’s no doubt Biden has lost the confidence of his party and the country. I believe the solution — and indeed, a great opportunity for the Democrats — is a truly open, transparent, “blitz primary” that could lead to a truly open convention.

. . . Prominent Democratic strategist James Carville authored his own plan for a mini-primary, suggesting party magnates such as former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama would select the eight strongest candidates to sit in a series of town halls moderated by liberal icons such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

At the convention, delegates would decide on the nominee using ranked choice voting, concluding on the third day. Once a nominee has been crowned, they would appear on stage with Biden and Harris, as well as Obama and Clinton in a demonstration of unity and progress.

Without this, the likely winner — indeed the almost certain winner — of November’s election, will be Donald Trump.

Let me see if I can parse this out. We have the list of usual suspects, starting with Kamala and extending through Newsom and Whitmer until veering into the impossibilities of Pritzer and Shapiro, who are Jewish and won't pass muster with the anti-Semitic wing of the party. Michelle Obama has taken herself out of the running, twice. Of Kamala, Schoen himself says,

Indeed, it is unlikely Harris would be a strong candidate, and she proved to be a less than adept campaigner after dropping out two months before the first primary in 2020.

Schoen goes through the rest of the list and adds a few others -- Pete Buttigieg?? -- and concludes,

While none of these candidates beat Trump in the current polling, a blitz primary would no doubt catapult any one of these individuals into the national spotlight, making up for a lack of familiarity among the broader electorate.

Basically he's hoping that somewhere there's an as-yet-undiscovered generic Democrat, so far completely unknown to the public but in fact known to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who could be found and suddenly shine in an August "blitz primary", who would steal the electorate's heart in a whirlwind romance and beat Trump soundly in November. Someone -- well, someone like Pete Buttigieg, or maybe Beto O'Rourke.

In other words, some pretty-boy young white guy, but without the baggage -- after all, with Buttigieg, where does presumptive first spouse Chasten fit in? You can't call him "first lady", and it's not inclusive to call him "first gentleman" like Doug Emhoff.

I suggested "first f*****" to my wife -- after all, Pope Francis uses the term -- but I think this is all just an example of how wishful any such scenario turns out to be. It's no different from the attempt in 1972 to replace Tom Eagleton with Sargent Shriver -- but I don't think the Democrats have anyone now with even the prestige of Sargent Shriver.

Well, if the ancient aliens are immortal, maybe they can hold a seance or something and rustle one up. He might just fit the bill. Erich von Däniken himself, though, is 89. Cross him off the list.