“Go, sell all you have, give to the poor and come follow Me.” — Mark 10:21
When I was growing up, I had a vague skepticism about one aspect of the Cold War. I did understand that the Russians were coming. The Russians were coming. I did understand that we Americans stood for freedom and would not punish people for, say, creating literature, as those horrible Stalin types did.
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But I did not quite get why our priests, in Sunday sermons, failed to say the occasional nice thing about communism’s apparent “Christianity.”
Later, maybe by college age, I figured out that we have to go whole hog with the theory proclaimed by our side. Ignore any fiddly little questions about it. It’s win or lose, better dead than red, etc.!
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is pathetic. And it’s sooo apparent in the “Midterms.” Dems and Repubs have no intention of listening to each other. For our part, we Republicans lump all Democrats into a category and characterize the lot of ’em as little Bidens. Or little Schumers. (Or little Liz Cheneys.)
I’ll bet a sum of money that if you pulled ten people off the street in Manchester and chatted with them about, say, the Emmy awards (or anything neutral), you wouldn’t glean their party membership. A glowing halo wouldn’t be there to help you identify the Repubs, and a coupla horns wouldn’t give away the identity of the Dems. It’s just not like that.
I’m here to suggest to the triumvirate — Bolduc, Leavitt, and Burns — that they refrain from acting like they are perfect. We, on this side, already feel that they are perfect, so there’s no need for them to keep yelling the perfect Party platform. Doing so won’t add to the votes they get because every Repub is going to tick the right box anyway. (Anyone who doesn’t, please report to Sister Superior.)
The triumvirate needs to win tens of thousands of Dem votes. Per Ballotpedia, the November 2020 election in NH yielded 424,937 votes for Joe Biden (who had fared super-lousy in the Dem Primary) and 365,660 for the incumbent president, Trump. So Don Bolduc needs to get heaps and heaps of Dems, to vote him in to the US Senate. How’s my math?
I haven’t checked the breakdown of Districts 1 and 2 as regards the margin won by Pappas and Kuster, but it’s safe to say that Leavitt and Burns will need to woo many of the “enemy.” And I hope it’s obvious that our candidates gain nothing by yelling that Dems are stupid, dishonest, smelly, or anything untoward. (Tell me if I’ve got the math wrong.)
Back to Jesus
Betcha your average Catholic Democrat in NH thinks socialism has some affinity with the Gospel. Don’t worry, I know that socialism, Marxism, Communism, etc is not a plan for kindness. In fact, I am pretty sure it’s a scam of the first order. Always was, since the French Revolution of 1789 — per Nesta Webster’s amazing insight.
But the scam aspect is known only to a subset of Internet activists. On the streets of Concord, the horned set thinks socialism IS kindness. And if they believe subsidies are a good thing, they’re not far wrong. A libertarian ideal is a lovely ideal, but the reality for, say, the elderly is that a Social Security check is the source of food.
Please don’t get itchy — Yours Truly would love an unsubsidized situation. The New Hampshire ideal is great, but the feds put paid to that generations ago. (New Deal, Great Society, blah blah.) Alas.
I recommend we develop an awareness of the plenty of ordinary Dems who inhabit the Granite State. Not the mean ones. Not the mind-controlled ones. We should see them as being interested in kindness. I saw a rip-roaring food kitchen the other day. Lots of people were helping out. Were they halo’d or horn’d? I don’t know but that sort of activity is typically Dem.
So is LGBT stuff. Jesus respected Mary Magdalen. He even accepted a tax collector — Zacheus, remember? So would He say to a transperson: “Outta here”? I don’t think so.
Don’t get itchy — the propagandizing of children about gender is evil, and if it leads to an adolescent sex change it is positively criminal. But rejecting folks who don’t fit the norm is not exactly New Hampshire.
And taking a stand against them is …uh… unmathematical….
The Needle/Camel Rule
Continuing with that quote from Mark, Chapter 10. Here are verses 25 though 31:
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.”
Whew!
