Sinners: Political Vampires

By Dr. Jerry Andrew Taylor

I was fortunate enough to be among citizens of Abilene who attended a recent showing of “Sinners,” starring Michael B. Jordan, at the historic Paramount Theatre.

The movie was a powerful rendition of a chilling account of the old folklore about mysterious, long-toothed creatures known as vampires.

As I sat among the crowd of about 250 people, I began to think about how many vampires might actually be moving among the general population today in disguise. They are highly undetectable in crowds. There is nothing original about their appearance. There is one specific type of vampire that the movie “Sinners” made me think about — the political vampire.

Political vampires are in every crowd and every gathering. Churches, synagogues, temples, communes, and mosques are not exempt from their quiet infiltration.

They sit among sacred ceremonies, even during Holy Communion, appearing to participate. But in reality, they are only observing and learning how to avoid the meaning behind the blood of Christ and the genuine sacrifice that it represents.

They resist anything that might challenge their ego or weaken their ambitious appetite for the shedding of innocent blood.

Like bat-like creatures of the night, they operate in darkness because their satanic allegiance cannot tolerate the in-breaking dawn of light. They do everything they can to keep the light away from their eyes and from the eyes of their blind followers.

They economically use their corporate-owned media as a blockade to resist the unbiased light of truth from entering the arena of spiritual darkness.

In a world full of aspiration and narcissistic ambition, political vampires drain the life out of people who embody dreams and hope for a better future.

They move quietly in the shadows of human progress, seductively riding on the work of their unsuspecting followers while carefully planning how to outmaneuver them at the ballot box. At first, they seem sincere. They appear eager to be part of a positive populist fervor. But their intentions are not genuine. They have a way of advancing themselves with the use of professional deception into the spotlight, creating a story that places them at the center as if they were assigned the leading role in the American drama all along.

These leech-like predators allow others to build their platforms, investing time, energy, and creativity. Then, at the right moment, they step in and take control by putting their names on the work as if it originally belonged to them. They greedily feed on the ideas of others, using their creativity as an ambitious stepping stone to their political and economic success. Once they benefit, they erase the contributions of those who made their careers possible, acting as if their political victims never existed.

It is disheartening to realize that political vampires often see people not as constituents, but as consumeristic simpletons, like weak-minded individuals who do not recognize their own independent intelligence, talents, and gifts.

When their political supporters are no longer useful, they are cast aside and left in the painful pasture of lonely obscurity, buried underneath the weight of being intentionally forgotten and written off.

They have a hidden resentment for the people they lead which makes it easy for them to exploit their creativity and trust under the pretension of sound innovative leadership. They soften the thinking of their supporters with political flattery, building confidence and loyalty, while quietly working behind the scenes to con them out of their independence and freedom.

They value their followers not for who they are, but for what they can take from them. In this process of political pick-pocketing, their loyal supporters are left feeling like their hard-earned resources have been used up, drained and depleted.

In the end, political vampires leave their faithful supporters feeling devastatingly devalued, much like a West African gold mine that has been stripped of its wealth and left only with the empty dust of nothingness.

Political vampires never give an acknowledgment of what was taken, no recognition of the role their supporters played in making them who they are. Everything others have done is absorbed and claimed as their own unique creativity.

As in “Sinners,” people are left wondering how they allowed themselves to be taken advantage of so easily. They feel the weight of betrayal while watching their favorite politicians enjoy the credit for the work they creatively stole from them. They are found standing in the spotlight while the real contributors who made them great are left in the rural graveyards of obscurity.

The lesson is clear. We must be careful about those whose mouths are dripping with innocent blood that we welcome inside the homes of our hearts, souls, and minds in the name of patriotic protectionism. We must protect the blood of freedom that flows through the veins of the national memory we inherited from those who bequeathed to us the commonwealth of mutuality and sister/brotherhood that stretches from sea to shining sea.

In order for us to be faithful to this call we must keep the poisonous bite of political vampires from fatally infecting our awareness, our voice, and our sovereign liberty.

As I write this in Philadelphia this early morning, preparing to travel on early Wednesday morning to New York City, I am struck with a sober and burning reminder of what we need as a nation — to return to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, born here in this city, and use them to fan the fiery torch of freedom that still burns in Lady Liberty’s hand in Manhattan Harbor.

The light of freedom remains the strongest defensive repellent against political vampires. Corrupt politicians depend on darkness to survive, and they cannot stand in the clear light of truth, where their actions are exposed and laid bare under enlightened scrutiny of a spiritually intelligent citizenry.