Snakes and Blind Guides

I stopped being a Republican a year or so ago when I registered here in Colorado as a Libertarian.  I now officially declare myself Not a Conservative.

I remain a conservative person, as was Frank Zappa, but I no longer call myself  "a Conservative," so as not to be confused with the illogical, racist, hateful movement variety.  Although I also have some liberalism in me, I cannot call myself "a Liberal" either, for the same reasons.

* It is very un-conservative to attack other regions and sow chaos, leaving anarchy in your wake. It is not conservative to blow money you don't have, while rewarding Wall Street gamblers who shot craps, and getting in bed with corporate vampires who destroy American communities in the name of saving a few bucks, all justified by economic theory ripped from all reality and context.

* Liberalism (True liberalism--not the "creepy progressive virtue signaling" that has gutted liberalism and is now wearing its skin) stands up for the little guy, the oppressed and the Voltairian right to do and say things you disagree with.  But not anymore.  American "liberalism" is an angry punch-list of screeds, creeds, speech codes and buzzwords. Defending the rights of others has devolved into mob rule and angry social media pogroms driving heretics from the privacy of their own consciences out into the public square for public confessions, executions or banishment.

Both ideologies have been abandoned and gutted.  Only their names remain, as bold-faced labels on True Believer checklists of two opposing camps.

Theoretical Bullshit grows Ideological Weeds

White lab coat conservatives launch their little remote-control economic and nation-building experiments, and when they crash into reality and explode in a fireball, destroying jobs and the lives of millions, the "conservatives" patiently turn back to the CPAC cameras and repeat the cold, sterile, theory that worked 30, 60 or 200 years ago, and they receive waves of adulation from the hooting throngs.

If you can't explain your economic theory to unemployed workers in a rust belt bar without getting beaten up, it's not a good economic theory.

"Whitewashed Sepulchers" 

"Christian Conservatives" shake with purple-faced rage at gay marriage, yet see no problem with the state allowing heteros to marry as many times as they want, in direct violation of a plainly-stated teaching of Jesus.

How about a little charity in action, Christian Conservatives? How about getting into low income areas and bringing them conservative, practical free-market solutions they can use to improve their lives? Do you realize some people's very lives depend upon social services and government assistance?

Can you understand why black people in Ferguson, Baltimore and other places are protesting? Can you separate the misery of real people being abused from the noisy political activists?

"Woe to You"

"Conservatism" has collapsed into a congeries of cult-like repetition of shorthand phrases, sterile economic theory that eats American workers, foreign interventions and fundamentalist tent revivals.

I can no longer defend it. "Conservative" activists need to reacquaint themselves with Russell Kirk, wipe that mean smirk off their faces, learn how to talk pleasantly to Americans they disagree with, and then maybe they'll get me back on board.

When the rotten, verminous GOP edifice collapses, I hope Turdblossom Rover and the rest of the political malpractice perpetrators are trapped in the rubble.

A "Brood of Vipers"

I leave you with the famous "Seven Woes," spoken by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Matthew 23.

23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,[a] and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi[b] by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c]9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor,the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.[d] 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell[e] as yourselves.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are likewhitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents,you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah,[f] whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.