David McElroy

Government would work great if we could just elect “the right people.” Right?

If we had honest, intelligent, principled people who believed “fill in the blank here” — whatever you happen to believe — the politicians would work for The People. Government would work for all of us. We would restore the Constitution and the meaning of the Republic. And on and on. All we need is to elect “the right people.”

Have you heard this song before?

As someone who makes the case that the existing system is broken by design — and is immoral by design — this is the response I hear most frequently from well-meaning patriotic people. Whether they’re on the progressive left or the social conservative right or some other position, they honestly believe the majoritarian system will produce what they want — if we can just elect “the right people.”

In the Republican primary here in Alabama’s sixth congressional district, voters have a chance this year to elect someone who is exactly what they always claim to want. Paul DeMarco is a two-term state representative with a spotless conservative record, and he’s a candidate for Congress following the retirement of the man who’s held onto the spot for years.

I know Paul well. Nine years ago, I worked as a consultant for his first campaign for the Legislature, and he became one of my favorite clients ever. (I dug up an old piece of his literature to show you the logo I designed way back then, although the colors are off in this snapshot. It was really PMS 200 and reflex blue, just in case anyone cares. The typeface is Folio, which was my trademark typeface at the time.) Paul is very intelligent, honest, principled and level-headed. He’s willing to listen to people who disagree with him, and he wants to understand other positions and come up with solutions that make everyone happy. He’s a problem-solver. He’s exactly what a civics textbook would dream of as the ideal politician.

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Diversity is one of the holy pillars of modern secular thought. It can’t be questioned or ignored. You will bow down to it and worship what it represents — just as long as the elites approve of the “diverse” people in question.

Human beings are hypocrites, but most don’t even recognize their hypocrisy. One of the key examples was on display this week as progressive left advocates of diversity proved how much they love diversity by hounding a man out of a job because he had dared to make a political contribution they disagreed with.

Brendan Eich invented the JavaScript scripting language, which is essential to the operation of the modern web. You wouldn’t be reading this page or pretty much any of the websites you read in the same way without his work. Eich was recently hired as CEO for the open source Mozilla browser project, and he seems like a perfect fit.

But as soon as he was hired, the advocates of diversity started whining, first as a low rumble and then louder and louder. Nobody alleged that Eich wasn’t qualified for the job. Nobody alleged that Eich had mistreated anyone. Eich’s only sin — in the eyes of the progressive left people who screamed — is having donated $1,000 six years ago to the political campaign which sought to pass Proposition 8 in California, the measure seeking to define marriage as something only between a man and a woman.

This isn’t a popular opinion today, especially among those who consider themselves the political and technological elite. In fact, it’s pretty much on par with the allegation decades ago that someone might have been a member of the Communist Party. It’s enough to make someone a leper in the eyes of people who otherwise preach diversity.

On Thursday, Eich was fired from his new job. We’re told that he resigned, but anybody with a brain knows he was forced out. He was purged for having a political belief that the elites don’t find acceptable.

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Fred Phelps is dying. That news has touched off rejoicing among many people who are angry and hurt about what Phelps has done with the anti-gay cult he founded in Kansas.

Phelps was the founder and former pastor of the group which calls itself the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. But his story is complicated. The Mississippi-born Phelps was an award-winning civil rights lawyer early in his career. How do we reconcile that with the subsequent career of the man who’s best known for preaching that “God hates fags“?

On Facebook, I saw many angry comments after the news came out Sunday that he’s dying.

“I hope it’s an awful and traumatic death,” one woman wrote in what was typical of the attitudes I noticed.

I disagree with Phelps and the group he founded. They’re wrong theologically and in every other way. They’re full of hate and anger. The things they say and do are vile and mean. And they’re terribly arrogant.

But I don’t hate Phelps or the others who are still part of the cult. Despite the terrible things they’ve done — and the hurt they’ve inflicted on many people, including some I care about — I’m not going to bring myself to their level and hate them in return.

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