[MrB]

You’re getting close with the “snake” part.
“Liberalism” is just the latest incarnation of the ideology of the prince of this world,

and it won’t be going away until he is cast into the pit.

[ichabod1]

I found the “diseased corpse” metaphor downthread to be perhaps more apt. I’ll say one thing about the Romans, they never had to govern 300+ million people.