Fair enough. And if you read what I wrote, I don’t totally disagree with being careful how we allow people in. The problem though is how powerless the impoverished are to do anything about it. The situation for these people is overwhelmingly hopeless.
But one of the main reasons I’ve shifted from identifying myself as conservative is the anger and mean spiritedness of their rhetoric. You say you have empathy and I don’t doubt it. But that empathy didn’t show through in your post. You didn’t say...this is a bad situation for people through no fault of their own, but we have to be careful here because we aren’t in a position to be caregivers of the world. You said to send them back to their “crap hole country.” I didn’t see the empathy in that and I’m glad you clarified your point of view.
However, I do believe that an overwhelming majority of conservatives, especially Trump supporters, have very little empathy for those less fortunate both inside and outside of our country. Poverty and the lot you’re born into just stacks the odds against people. More so in other countries where the economic base of the country gives them almost zero chance to find a way out. That’s why they’re coming here. Our own poverty in this country certainly stacks the odds against you, but it isn’t hopeless like elsewhere. How people can display the hatefulness and total lack of empathy is beyond me. But I read this mean spirited stuff everywhere and it’s coming mainly from the right.
I was a conservative all my life because I believe in the values of hard work. I can’t understand sloth and it bothers me when I see able bodied people with a choice and options refuse to better themselves. I was a conservative all my life because I believed it gave me the best chance to provide for my family. But I quit identifying with conservatism when they started exulting hatefulness. Go on some of the conservative sites such as The Donald on reddit. It’s hard to believe people can’t value work and self reliance without hating everyone.
