It would be tempting to laugh off Beto O’Rourke’s latest insane and unconstitutional idea - that religious and charitable institutions should be stripped of their tax-exempt status if they don’t support gay marriage - if we could be absolutely certain this malevolent proposal won’t spread like herpes to the rest of the Democrats seeking their party’s nomination.

O’Rourke, after all, is stubbornly stuck at 1.8 percent in the Real Clear Politics poll.

He’s not going to win the nomination.

Unfortunately, no notion seems too bizarre for many in the frothing crew of lefties racing to embrace gun confiscation, open borders, socialized medicine, abortions until the moment of birth, the Green New Deal and voting rights for 16-year-olds.

O’Rourke’s awful proposal takes aim at the heart of our republic - freedom of religion - and the very concept that religious institutions are good for the country. Houses of worship support families and contribute billions of dollars every year to charitable endeavors, but if their doctrine believes only in traditional marriage, O’Rourke wants to mete out punishment as he stomps all over the First Amendment..

The Texan’s pandering to the LGBTQ community would cripple mosques, Orthodox Jewish congregations, Mormons, evangelical Christians and Catholic Churches. It would devastate their charities that respond generously and with alacrity to natural and manmade disasters, feed the hungry, provide shelter for the homeless and medical services to the indigent.

Such a vindictive move would require the state to step in to replace these faith-based organizations.

Fans of big government would cheer such a vigorous kick in the chops to religious groups. Normal Americans, however, understand the importance of religion..

Writing for The Atlantic, John Inazu, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, warned that O’Rourke’s idea is so radical that if the Democratic candidate loses in 2020 it will partly be as a result of this one crazy proposal, which reinforces fears that the left is antagonistic to religion.

“O’Rourke’s stance—if played out to its end—would decimate the charitable sector. It is certainly the case that massive amounts of government funding flow through religious charitable organizations in the form of grants and tax exemptions. But anyone who thinks this is simply a pass-through that can be redirected to government providers or newly established charitable networks that better conform to Democratic orthodoxies is naive to the realities of the charitable sector.”

We all know what’s going on here. Beto O’Rourke and many on the intolerant left are determined to characterize conservative thought and religious principles as “hate speech.”

Their real goal is to make everyone think as they do.

Or else.