What I think you’re missing is that Sarah Stillman’s New Yorker piece and your blog post are doing completely different things.
The New Yorker piece is (and I truly don't know how you could argue it isn't) relentlessly committed to portraying deportees in the most sympathetic light possible.
The tweet promoting the article included a quote from a murderer describing his deportation as like “how slaves might have felt, going to another land in shackles and chains.”
That kind of presentation makes people feel as though they’re being emotionally manipulated either by cynical ideologues or by well-meaning but dangerously naive activist-journalists.
I really think that a lot of the reaction is to *that* (but I won't disagree that some people just believe, "Ahh, well, send 'em wherever!").
I'm also struck by the selective empathy of journalists who tend to write articles like this. I remember a terrorist attack in Ohio a few years ago, where a Muslim student went on a stabbing spree at OSU. There was a minor controversy when a professor posted on Facebook about imagining what that student must have gone through to wind up so full of hate and anger. I think it was HuffPo that put out some article about it with a headline like, 'Professor Attacked for Showing Empathy.'
Yeah, well, I really strongly suspect that the empathetic professor didn't make a post asking what awful life experiences forged Dylann Roof in the aftermath of his mass shooting. And I've never seen a "complex" think piece about him in the New Yorker.
Annnyway. Your blog post isn’t doing any of this. You’re not asking me to sympathize with a murderer for getting deported. You’re asking me to confront the principles at stake. I wish Stillman’s article had taken the same approach. But it didn’t.
The principle isn’t hard to explain or to understand. If it’s OK to violate some peoples’ rights, then it’s OK to violate anyone’s rights. Justice becomes a matter of circumstances or preferences or beliefs, not law.
Funny how eagerly self-proclaimed supporters of law and order can embrace lawlessness.
Obv if we allow due process to lapse for anyone we're essentially signing up to live in a fascist hellhole. That's so transparent that I would strongly recommend you reconsider your relationships with any "liberals" who fail to understand it.
The absolutely bizarre idea that Democrats are too "left", and that's why Trump won, just cannot die, can it?
Democrats and liberals lost for several reasons: in part because their policies don't work and aren't popular, and in part because they are *disloyal cowards* who *abandoned people* before *feeding them to their owner/operators*. But mostly because they proudly represented and bragged about being the "status quo" that was literally actively harming everyone. Imagine watching someone beating and raping millions of people and loudly yelling that "that's my guy!" just before demanding those people vote for you. Sounds unlikely, no?
Bidenomics and Dem's unpopular neoliberal non-responses to our depraved healthcare system, our real estate market manipulation crisis, grocery store price gouging, OPEC+ retaliation, and Israel's genocide are what cemented their loss. That Biden, and Harris after him, ran two of the worst, most strategically-benighted campaigns in history certainly didn't help.
But they didn't lose because they're "woke". They lost because they're fake and bad at their jobs.
You write: "Clearly, a lot of our beliefs and especially our strategies and our language are not widely popular." Yes, and mass deportations and concentration camps without due process are. So? That's the direction to go? Let me just say that even a convicted murderer in this country has rights. Even suspected drug smugglers have rights. Those people sent off to foreign countries have rights. Dear God, our felon and sexual predator of a president has rights. We're nothing if we ignore our laws.
And this is a HUGE problem for Democrats for a solid decade now...and I don't know what the answer is, because the cold truth is, this is the #1 winning issue for Republicans especially with the majority of white Americans who will 100% of the time sadly vote for it time & again over anything else- the economy, no, it's the "illegals" fault. Abortion, well, not as important as this to many uneducated voters who outnumber educated ones. *Insert any other issue here*, you get the point...
The other huge issue is crime, a bit easier to counter than immigration but still very difficult: Trump is not THAT stupid politically even IF he's an idiot overall, of course he knows most blame him for the economy now that he's the President no matter his "b-but Biden, it was his economy so...s-soooo..." nonsense so expect deflections to this issue, that one, followed by countless attempts to reframe the discussion around migrant caravans, etc. They're not counting on the economy to save them, it's not mere populism there alone that will work even WITH Trump weighing down his party this time like in Term I contrary to what people believe is the easy fix on its own here because he wasn't elected on the economy alone, period, it was white & male resentment and hate 100%-- and another problem, like me the country is in a far more negative mood towards Dems than in Term I in Term II which is going to cancel out the degree of Blue backlash if not fixed within the year span even with Trump mired in the low 40s for now (I don't know what's coming with Venezuela if they go for it, no one does...).
But in the end, becoming like Trump on immigration, provides no contrast or foil with Trump on immigration- so, as you said, better to give some foil than none at all because neither they nor your own base, will take your side then.
I think Biden tried to have it both ways, and instead, had it none: in fact, I would argue there was never any open border (there was a problem of influx of immigrants, but never any border that was open- all GOP lies, all the time, as was the Biden Border Crisis bs: Cornyn’s “there’s nothing safe, there’s nothing humane” gaslighting was superb though, can see why many bought that garbage), and instead, by the end 46 embraced legislation that was effectively the strictest, harshest legislation endorsed by Sen Lankford (R-OK) on border control in modern times for any President except the current one’s second term.
President Biden ended up breaking his “not another foot” promise on border wall (am not shocked that cost Dems with Latinos, Latinas, and believe it or not, young white men would who grew disillusioned by that broken promise) and then went all the way to the other end of the spectrum in the span of 4 years to, “Look at how tough I am on the border, Trump isn’t as harsh as I am!!! Biden wins, he deported even more!”
(Not only did this not work for him or Harris because no one believed they were the “tough” ones on it anyway, but it also hurt them with their own base to boot feeling abandoned is my point of view- this is only one of many issues like this, imo)
I will say decriminalizing illegal border crossings however was insanity to me so foolish then, and now, imo: if you want actual drug cartels to cross, illegal immigrants who actually have intent to hurt others, possible rapists, and no flow stemmed, then that’s the way to go and that’s what 90% of Dems said we should do in the past on a debate stage at one point which baffled me. It’s in fact a very complex issue, and the last President who did anything with it of note was Reagan. The can has been kicked down the road repeatedly since then, and eventually, W Bush founded ICE which we live with today as Trump’s personal gestapo to boot— kids in cages was a thing under Obama, too, not just Trump as well as Biden, etc etc. Trump II however is the undisputed king of cruelty and hate here, like with all else, gulags with Bukele (also a corrupt monster) as well as ICE even attacking citizens now.
There’s no easy answer here: either way, you offend someone, and either way you won’t convince Reps you’re crueler than they are if you’re trying to win them over here so my two cents is may as well listen to your core base here with a sane, humane, legal, pathway to come here after vetting if seeking asylum but no decriminalizing the border to illegal crossings, and a fair idea would be to give citizenship to those who seek work here legally within 10 years of working in some form since they, in fact, did not do it the proper way but with compassion/empathy for people just wanting to earn an honest living seeking refuge.
What I think you’re missing is that Sarah Stillman’s New Yorker piece and your blog post are doing completely different things.
The New Yorker piece is (and I truly don't know how you could argue it isn't) relentlessly committed to portraying deportees in the most sympathetic light possible.
The tweet promoting the article included a quote from a murderer describing his deportation as like “how slaves might have felt, going to another land in shackles and chains.”
That kind of presentation makes people feel as though they’re being emotionally manipulated either by cynical ideologues or by well-meaning but dangerously naive activist-journalists.
I really think that a lot of the reaction is to *that* (but I won't disagree that some people just believe, "Ahh, well, send 'em wherever!").
I'm also struck by the selective empathy of journalists who tend to write articles like this. I remember a terrorist attack in Ohio a few years ago, where a Muslim student went on a stabbing spree at OSU. There was a minor controversy when a professor posted on Facebook about imagining what that student must have gone through to wind up so full of hate and anger. I think it was HuffPo that put out some article about it with a headline like, 'Professor Attacked for Showing Empathy.'
Yeah, well, I really strongly suspect that the empathetic professor didn't make a post asking what awful life experiences forged Dylann Roof in the aftermath of his mass shooting. And I've never seen a "complex" think piece about him in the New Yorker.
Annnyway. Your blog post isn’t doing any of this. You’re not asking me to sympathize with a murderer for getting deported. You’re asking me to confront the principles at stake. I wish Stillman’s article had taken the same approach. But it didn’t.
The principle isn’t hard to explain or to understand. If it’s OK to violate some peoples’ rights, then it’s OK to violate anyone’s rights. Justice becomes a matter of circumstances or preferences or beliefs, not law.
Funny how eagerly self-proclaimed supporters of law and order can embrace lawlessness.
Cannot ❤️ this enough. Thank you.
Obv if we allow due process to lapse for anyone we're essentially signing up to live in a fascist hellhole. That's so transparent that I would strongly recommend you reconsider your relationships with any "liberals" who fail to understand it.
The absolutely bizarre idea that Democrats are too "left", and that's why Trump won, just cannot die, can it?
Democrats and liberals lost for several reasons: in part because their policies don't work and aren't popular, and in part because they are *disloyal cowards* who *abandoned people* before *feeding them to their owner/operators*. But mostly because they proudly represented and bragged about being the "status quo" that was literally actively harming everyone. Imagine watching someone beating and raping millions of people and loudly yelling that "that's my guy!" just before demanding those people vote for you. Sounds unlikely, no?
Bidenomics and Dem's unpopular neoliberal non-responses to our depraved healthcare system, our real estate market manipulation crisis, grocery store price gouging, OPEC+ retaliation, and Israel's genocide are what cemented their loss. That Biden, and Harris after him, ran two of the worst, most strategically-benighted campaigns in history certainly didn't help.
But they didn't lose because they're "woke". They lost because they're fake and bad at their jobs.
You write: "Clearly, a lot of our beliefs and especially our strategies and our language are not widely popular." Yes, and mass deportations and concentration camps without due process are. So? That's the direction to go? Let me just say that even a convicted murderer in this country has rights. Even suspected drug smugglers have rights. Those people sent off to foreign countries have rights. Dear God, our felon and sexual predator of a president has rights. We're nothing if we ignore our laws.
And this is a HUGE problem for Democrats for a solid decade now...and I don't know what the answer is, because the cold truth is, this is the #1 winning issue for Republicans especially with the majority of white Americans who will 100% of the time sadly vote for it time & again over anything else- the economy, no, it's the "illegals" fault. Abortion, well, not as important as this to many uneducated voters who outnumber educated ones. *Insert any other issue here*, you get the point...
The other huge issue is crime, a bit easier to counter than immigration but still very difficult: Trump is not THAT stupid politically even IF he's an idiot overall, of course he knows most blame him for the economy now that he's the President no matter his "b-but Biden, it was his economy so...s-soooo..." nonsense so expect deflections to this issue, that one, followed by countless attempts to reframe the discussion around migrant caravans, etc. They're not counting on the economy to save them, it's not mere populism there alone that will work even WITH Trump weighing down his party this time like in Term I contrary to what people believe is the easy fix on its own here because he wasn't elected on the economy alone, period, it was white & male resentment and hate 100%-- and another problem, like me the country is in a far more negative mood towards Dems than in Term I in Term II which is going to cancel out the degree of Blue backlash if not fixed within the year span even with Trump mired in the low 40s for now (I don't know what's coming with Venezuela if they go for it, no one does...).
But in the end, becoming like Trump on immigration, provides no contrast or foil with Trump on immigration- so, as you said, better to give some foil than none at all because neither they nor your own base, will take your side then.
I think Biden tried to have it both ways, and instead, had it none: in fact, I would argue there was never any open border (there was a problem of influx of immigrants, but never any border that was open- all GOP lies, all the time, as was the Biden Border Crisis bs: Cornyn’s “there’s nothing safe, there’s nothing humane” gaslighting was superb though, can see why many bought that garbage), and instead, by the end 46 embraced legislation that was effectively the strictest, harshest legislation endorsed by Sen Lankford (R-OK) on border control in modern times for any President except the current one’s second term.
President Biden ended up breaking his “not another foot” promise on border wall (am not shocked that cost Dems with Latinos, Latinas, and believe it or not, young white men would who grew disillusioned by that broken promise) and then went all the way to the other end of the spectrum in the span of 4 years to, “Look at how tough I am on the border, Trump isn’t as harsh as I am!!! Biden wins, he deported even more!”
(Not only did this not work for him or Harris because no one believed they were the “tough” ones on it anyway, but it also hurt them with their own base to boot feeling abandoned is my point of view- this is only one of many issues like this, imo)
I will say decriminalizing illegal border crossings however was insanity to me so foolish then, and now, imo: if you want actual drug cartels to cross, illegal immigrants who actually have intent to hurt others, possible rapists, and no flow stemmed, then that’s the way to go and that’s what 90% of Dems said we should do in the past on a debate stage at one point which baffled me. It’s in fact a very complex issue, and the last President who did anything with it of note was Reagan. The can has been kicked down the road repeatedly since then, and eventually, W Bush founded ICE which we live with today as Trump’s personal gestapo to boot— kids in cages was a thing under Obama, too, not just Trump as well as Biden, etc etc. Trump II however is the undisputed king of cruelty and hate here, like with all else, gulags with Bukele (also a corrupt monster) as well as ICE even attacking citizens now.
There’s no easy answer here: either way, you offend someone, and either way you won’t convince Reps you’re crueler than they are if you’re trying to win them over here so my two cents is may as well listen to your core base here with a sane, humane, legal, pathway to come here after vetting if seeking asylum but no decriminalizing the border to illegal crossings, and a fair idea would be to give citizenship to those who seek work here legally within 10 years of working in some form since they, in fact, did not do it the proper way but with compassion/empathy for people just wanting to earn an honest living seeking refuge.