I gather from a recently published Letter to the Editor that my view of the national political scene really aggravates some folks. Such is life. Apparently I’m just an aggravating person.

Can’t help myself. As far as politics go, I have to admit that generally speaking I don’t like conservatism because it’s not fair or just. It claims to be an ideology of liberty, but it picks who the winners are based on 19th Century reckoning that lacks credence with me. By their reasoning, Ebenezer Scrooge, before the bad dreams, is the good guy of A Christmas Carol rather than the bad guy.

Even though conservatives are the ones most likely to waive the Bible to support their cause and the most likely to invoke Jesus Christ to bolster their argument, their ideology promotes greed and an inherent notion of unfairness toward the economically weak. (If you have economic strength it’s because you work harder than other people.)

To the conservatives, Jesus Christ is some war mongering super rich guy that holds poor folks in contempt and thinks the government is evil. (Our government, remember, is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people. If it’s evil, that likely says something about we the people.)

That’s not the Jesus Christ I read about in the Bible or studied in Sunday School. He valued people for being good, not for being powerful or rich.

Liberal democracy comes closer to the Christian ideal than conservatism, by my reckoning.

I like what Bernie Sanders is saying on the stump. He wants everybody to have shot at the American dream of a good life, not just limit it to a select few.

The only reason I’m not supporting Bernie for prez is the tag of socialist he’s attached to his name. That’s going to scare too many people away because they associate it with communism, which we battled for the many decades of the Cold War.

Hillary has pulled more in Bernie’s direction on economics during this primary cycle, so I’m pulling for her to win because she has more real world experience to go with it.

She’ll be a good president for the vast majority of the American people.

I’ve been satirically rooting in this space for Donald Trump to be the Republican going head to head against Hillary because I’ve always felt sure the American people would come to their senses by the November election.

I see by yesterday’s results that, except in a few counties (to include Bertie) where Ted Cruz prevailed, Trump was top dog for Republicans. But Hillary still got more votes, which I hope means something for the upcoming general election.

So, by November, Hillary has to settle up with her email problem and The Donald has to settle his impending problem with inciting a riot at a campaign event.

Maybe they’ll both be free from jail.

In the meantime, I get to continue listening to Trump rant and rave and get to hear the Republican Party panic about what their silliness since President Obama was elected in 2008 has wrought.

 

Keith Hoggard is a Staff Writer at Roanoke-Chowan Publications. He can be contacted at keith.hoggard@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7206.