An Embarrassing Truth
Embarrassing. Nauseating. Truly and breath-takingly ignorant. That would be the current fawning capitulation of the Republican Party regarding immigration. What is it about these "professional" politicans in the GOP that forces them to be constantly in a reactionary-defensive mode regarding Progressives? Does the Left have a corner on strategic thinking? Do they own the copy rights to agenda setting? The birthrights to media savvy? Humiliating; a philosophical death spiral.
"Ideas have consequences," intoned Richard Weaver. Bad ideas result in bad outcomes and good ideas the opposite. That simple? Yes. That simple. Always look to the ideas and suppositions of an opinion or position and you will see the seeds of success or failure.
The preconceptions (prejudices?) behind current Republican actions are two fold - 1) Truth is not objective 2) Truth is impossible for some groups of people to grasp.
Do we on the Right believe in the foundational ideas of the Founders or not? Is Truth, in the Utilitarian view, a faculty in service to the Common Good and/or current fad? Or is Truth rather self-authenticating and , well, free standing? As CS Lewis put it, Truth is a "realer reality more substantial than we ever can imagine."
Oh, our poor little brown brothers; so unable to understand self-governance, liberty under set and impartial law, constitutional republicanism, free markets and the like. So inclined are they and set in their collectivistic ways! We need to approach them with a softer Statism in order not to alienate them. (What!? Alienate the Alien?)
Let's reward their bad behavior and bring them out of the shadows to the bright uplands (sorry Winston) of Socialism Lite! That's the ticket! We will legislate our way into their hearts and minds!
Seriously. The same kind of attitude that brought us to this point in the first place: a Party simply not sure of itself. A Party cut off from its own history. A Party so accustomed to act as comic relief to the Ruling Elite that it willingly accepts mediocrity of thought and strategy. A Party that seems to believe what the other side says about them! Professional politicians? More like professional also-rans.
"What is truth?," asked the world wise and cynical Pilate as Truth stood right in front of him; beaten, bruised, but undefeated to the last.
Embarrassing. Nauseating. Truly and breath-takingly ignorant, Republicans. You've become captives of identity politics, captives of political profiling. About time you again became captives of Truth.