In that prescient film, The Devil’s Advocate, Satan says that his favorite sin is vanity. By now, it should be pretty obvious to most people who have not drunk the leftist koolaid that members of the global elite tend to be a pretty arrogant lot. Like the aristocrats of Europe a few centuries ago, they consider themselves to be inherently superior to us serfs, and many of them make no effort to hide it. Gary Aldrich, in Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House, described in some detail the near-incredible arrogance of Hillary. And who can forget the haughty demeanor of Lois Lerner when Congress dared question her regarding abuses by the IRS? Nor are the likes of Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, and George Soros noted for humility. But the elitists at the top of the leftist dung pile also recruit followers in large part by appealing to their vanity, their arrogant desire to feel, not merely the equals of the unwashed masses, but their superiors. Leftists, including otherwise fairly decent “liberals,” want above all else to belong to the “right set,” to an in group whose members consider themselves by definition to be intellectually brilliant, sexy, sophisticated, bold, daring, and compassionate. And all they have to do to be all of these things (in their own minds) and to belong to the in group is to accept without question a kind of ideological package deal. Then they can feel smugly superior to the “bitter clingers” out there in “fly over country,” those benighted fools who believe in God and in primitive Judeo-Christian morality, who work at productive jobs (how quaint), and, quite often, speak with Southern accents (proof positive of low intelligence).

Leftists often tend to be atheists or agnostics because belief in God is portrayed by their manipulators as a primitive superstition, unworthy of tough-minded, coldly rational intellectuals, who can face death unflinchingly, without the crutch of religion and a belief in an afterlife (at least until that death seems imminent). Never mind that it is impossible to prove a negative proposition (like the absence of a Supreme Being). Never mind that most of the people who have lived on Earth for countless millennia have believed in God, or gods, and some kind of an afterlife. Never mind that the foundations of the modern science in which so many leftists fervently believe were laid in large part by Christians and observant Jews.

Being the coldly rational atheist/materialists that they are, all leftists, even those with no degrees, even those who are high school dropouts (like certain Hollywood actors) are great scientists. They know that scientific issues are determined by consensus, rather than by rigorous testing of theories, and that the “science” of global warming is “settled.” Never mind that, in reality, there is no such consensus; many meteorologists and atmospheric physicists and oceanographers have even signed petitions stating that man-caused climate change is very far from proven. Very far indeed. Never mind that science, almost by definition, is never settled. Try reasoning with a leftist on this (or any) issue, try telling them the facts, and they will simply tune you out and hold you in contempt. They secretly long to kill all the deniers; perhaps we need a new Inquisition to ferret us out, to be burned at the stake. And of course leftists believe in the neo-Darwinian view of evolution; after all, only red-neck fundamentalist have their doubts about it – and leftists never, ever have any doubts about anything. Try explaining intelligent design to a leftist “scientist,” and, again, you will be tuned out and sneered at.

And, on top of all their other virtues, leftists are tolerant and inclusive and simply adore diversity. They practically worship Black or Hispanic street criminals, seeing them as downtrodden and oppressed, and have the greatest respect for racist Black militants who hate all Whites and Jews (including the leftists themselves). They know deep in their hearts that Islam is the religion of peace. Christians, after all, used to wage religious wars and burn witches and heretics. Of course, Muslims are still doing it, but that’s beside the point. But their tolerance has its limits; leftists have none at all for Christians or conservatives, and the diversity they advocate does not extend to a diversity of ideas.

And some of the most arrogant leftists of all are those (like the aforementioned actors) with very little formal education and those with essentially meaningless degrees in sociology or education, or the various “studies,” like “women’s studies and Black studies, majors that, ironically, require no study at all. A person "earning” a doctorate in education has eight years to absorb some meaningless jargon and be more completely indoctrinated while forgetting what pathetically little he may have learned in high school.

And liberals are “compassionate” if they favor setting vicious murderers free to kill again, if they support disarming law abiding victims, and, above all, if they support abortion, including late term and partial birth abortion. Their support for open borders, letting illegal aliens steal the jobs of American (including Black and Hispanic) workers, also proves their “compassion.” And being “compassionate” is yet more evidence (in their minds) of their inherent superiority to the rest of us.

So arrogant are leftists, so confident and smug, that even when one of their own insults them, they assume that he is talking about someone else, namely conservatives. When Jonathan Gruber spoke of the stupidity of the American voters, he was clearly referring to the leftists who supported Obama Care. Few, if any leftists even noticed this.

And leftists never admit to a mistake. How could they ever admit, even to themselves, that Obama made fools of them and that the peasants who voted against their tin Messiah were smarter than they? And they certainly can never admit that they have done evil; perhaps this explains the violent act of one abortion supporter in Texas. Melanie Toney, a Wendy Davis supporter, was recently arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at peaceful pro-life demonstrators. Perhaps in her mind they were, in effect, accusing her of the murder of an unborn child.

It is unfortunate that we conservative patriots can never be as proud and confident as those on the other side, that we cannot see ourselves as brilliant, sexy, progressive, and compassionate. But we cannot, for we are burdened with hearts and minds.