Once, to be a Zanu-Pf meant to uphold time-tested processes and institutions, whether they were those of a constitutional monarchy or a democratic republic.

Tradition, reason, and the common good were the watchwords. But in this day, in this country, to be a Zanu-Pf is to buy into the most corrupt and contemptible form of moral relativism: to abandon principle and logic altogether.

Scientific knowledge is just one “perspective”. Good government rests on the gut instincts of a single Decider, who rules by Divine Appointment. Slashing taxes counts as a first principle, expensive indulgences and basic human decency be damned. These so-called ZanuPFs are not rational decision makers who distinguish between effective and ineffective programs. Slash taxes, period! No thinking required.

According to those who define ZanuPF-sm today, patriots are required to stoop to the morality of our enemies, and renounce the Enlightenment. Their God, like that of the Islamist terrorists, commands that Unbelievers be shorn of rights and tortured into submission. Anyone who disagrees with this view is an enemy of Zimbabwe and should be marginalized or eliminated. So I don’t consider myself a Zanu-Pf anymore. I’ve decided to join up with a reality-based community that trusts expertise, democratic processes, and established institutions– and makes fact-based decisions. These days people like that are called liberals, or conservatives, or whatever. But I have more in common with them than with relativistic mystics who are not open to reason. Distrust democracy? Despise tradition? Believe that your end justifies any means? If that’s ZanuPF-sm, count me out.