These are all common sense considerations, mixed with an attempt to speak the unspun truth.
The bigger story, to me, is how readily large segments of our population seem to be to believe that conservatives somehow find pictures of children in cages acceptable, that we react differently somehow, as parents and one-time children, than the Leftists do. They think of us as defective human beings, who do not feel as they feel, who have no love in our hearts, who are utterly lacking in all compassion, who are not, in important respects, human at all.
They have, in other words, made of at least Trump supporters–but I think this can be generalized to all conservatives and even non-compliant Democrats–Untermenschen. I think some scary percentage of these Leftists, especially in particularly nutty places like San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, would be perfectly OK with setting up reeducation camps for people like me. We are not human to them. We don’t react like humans. We don’t feel like humans. And we spend all our time being greedy, power hungry, and wicked. Just like Hitler said of the Jews. Just like Lenin and then Stalin said of the kulaks, and other petit bourgeoisie.
How is this possible? It is a fascinating and relevant question. How has so much hatred, anger, and violence been inculcated in people who, in other contexts, would in most cases seem relatively psychologically normal?
We can’t have conversations. This is obvious. But the reason we can’t have conversations is they literally see us as another class of humans, one to which they are vastly superior.
This should trouble all thinking, rational, well meaning, decent human beings, regardless of their particular positions on matters of specific policy. We can debate how health care and health insurance should be organized. We can discuss optimal border policy. But none of us should be having to defend our very humanity, and at that, failing because no one will listen.
It has gone too far. Much too far.