My previous Tweet about how conservatives need to listen to the likes of David Brooks,  who is one of the best examples I know if a conservative who makes sense.  But conservatives today don’t like anyone who is not “against Obama”.  It reminds me of the time in the 80’s when the Southern Baptist Convention steered to the fundamentalist right.   But it wasn’t enough to actually agree with them theologically.  One also had to adopt their “purging” mentality.  They had to support the witch hunt mentality and the removal of missionaries,  denominational leadership positions, and seminary teachers and administrators who did not agree.  If they did not support such cruel and un_Christian treatment that uprooted the lives and careers of who knows how many persons working to fulfill their calling in ministry,  they too came into the target sights of the assassins such as Judge Paul Pressler,  Paige Patterson,  etc.  The Southwestern Baptist theological president comes to mind as one theological conservative who was blackballed because he would not join the witch hunt,  and dared to speak out against it.

This is what it looks like in this screechy environment we see today.  I can imagine there are those on the right who would not recognize David Brooks as a conservative,  since he doesn’t help “whip up the frenzy” that today’s right wants to bring to a froth.   The rhetoric of the “tea-baggers” is devoid of facts,  and driven by anger and self-righteousness.  This came home to me as I watch Obama respond to Republican caucus questions (which include many of the same rants that provide fuel for the “froth”.  Obama’s reasoning will not be heard by the ones made deaf and dumb by the endless tirades of Glenn Beck , Bill O’Reilly,  and Rush Limbaugh.  (It seems to me that maybe Glenn Beck is moving into the Fox pundit limelight ahead of Bill O’Reilly, no?)