Friday, June 22, 2018

Demonstrating political tribal partisanship and zealotry

So if your political opponents say 'Look, if you don't like what our president is doing, come up with a solution.  We need to make sure everyone is OK, and while that includes immigrants it also includes those back home.  But it is, and has been, a mess for some time.  Just as liberals said in the 80s and 90s, the countries they're from must also be accountable. In the meantime, we must fix this ages old problem before more people get hurt", and your response is to compare them to the lawyer being told the Parable of the Good Samaritan, then you're likely the partisan zealot. 

After all, the non-partisan response would be "While I disagree, and am appalled by what Trump (and Obama) have done about immigration, let's sit down and figure this out.  After all, it's the innocent, especially the children, who matter."  Instead it sounds like it's more important the political opponents be attacked than anything good happen for the immigrants, children or otherwise.

FWIW, my ears are now deaf to anyone who is calling this crisis the next Holocaust and comparing Trump to Hitler, ICE agents to Gestapo, and the border to Auschwitz, unless they have opened the doors of their homes and are letting any and all immigrants in their homes without question.  If they live too far away, I expect them in their cars and vans, driving to the borders, in order to invite immigrants back to their homes and allow them to stay without question. 

After all, we know the allies, including the United States, could have done more than raise an army and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives in order to defeat Nazi Germany.  We know they purposefully chose not to do things, not because those things wouldn't work, but because they secretly were glad the Nazis were killing Jews in death camps.  We know the Americans knew all about the death camps from day one.  How?  Because we said how evil the Nazis were but millions still died.  Obviously it had to be on purpose.  Racist America after all.

So given the rather high standards we hold the past to, and given the fact that this is now Hitler/Holocaust, I don't expect there to be a single excuse for why a critic of Trump doesn't have at least one immigrant family in their home.  For those who are housing immigrants?  Bravo.  Well done, Good Samaritan.  But for those who merely support others who do, or are merely involved with others who do the heavy lifting for immigrants, I say anathema.  Because of the standards we hold our own nation's past to, we must assume they really don't care about those immigrants at all, if they'd rather score political points than work together.  If they are raising the Holocaust Banner but aren't housing the immigrant, then it is they who are the Priest and the Levite. 

Normally I don't say 'Unless you have done everything, you have no right to an opinion.' We all have our situations in life.  But the rhetoric is so over the top, the willingness to condemn and judge so common, the refusal to allow for discussion, nuance or pity so standard, that it's high time to put their righteousness where their mouths are.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Let me know your thoughts