All too many people are getting the virtue equation exactly backward. They are labeling a person as good or bad based on their ideology — their position in the culture wars, whether they love or hate billionaires, or any other political fight — far more than their actions.

Or to put it another way, your ideology (or your theology for that matter) is your character.

So, if you’re on the left, if you check every box on wanting to secure women’s reproductive rights, support universal health care, and end American support for Israeli military actions in Gaza and beyond, then you’re a good person. And if information later emerges that you’ve sexted women who aren’t your wife or put Nazi symbols on your body, well even the best people go through hard times. We all make mistakes.

Conversely, on the right, if you check every box on opposing “wokeness,” securing the border, deporting immigrants, and first and foremost supporting Trump, then you’re MAGA’s version of a good person. And if you’ve had a few affairs or perhaps enriched yourself in public office? Well, Jesus is still on your side: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

But if you have the wrong ideas? God help you, you horrible troll. Why do they even let you vote?

You see this in what is, quite frankly, the weird Republican fury at Paxton’s Democratic opponent, James Talarico. They disagree with his theology, so he’s a heretic, and heretics are evil.

One question about that: Is apostasy better?

Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son and the head of Samaritan’s Purse, a huge Christian charity, called Talarico “wicked.” But Paxton acts as if his own faith isn’t real — isn’t that wicked? Yet hundreds of thousands of Texas Christians would crawl over broken glass to support him at the polls.