The Wall
Although I see building the wall as a mistake I see it stemming from the same feelings as people who unfriend others on Facebook who disagree with them and college students who attempt to create safe spaces. The common feeling is fear, trying to block out that which you are afraid of and feel unable to deal with. In the case of the wall it is really a symbol for what people really wish to block out, which is their feelings of desperation and helplessness as far as being able to make a living and have Healthcare and all the other ways in which they struggle.
Those who support the wall believe that their biggest problem is immigrants taking their jobs and creating problems for them in other ways. Of course the issues are far far more complex, but that's one of the things they're trying to block out. It's a lot easier to think you can solve the problems by keeping some immigrants from coming in than by acknowledging that the system itself is built for the average working person to struggle at best, because to try and change that seems a lot more daunting.
I doubt the average person supporting the wall has thought things through the way I detail above but I do believe that these are the real reasons they support the wall and so out of compassion I do not condemn them, although I do believe it is a great mistake and I oppose it and I do recognize the element of racism, some overt, some subconscious , which is present in a lot of these people.
To me the greatest problem in the country right now is the lack of empathy for others shown by people on all sides. The old phrase is "walk a mile in my shoes". instead people are so frightened and triggered that they have retreated into partisan camps and are totally unwilling to even try to see things from the other side's point of view, because then they might actually give an inch and they are so afraid that if they give an inch the other side will take a mile. So what we get are partisan battles in which everybody points fingers at each other and tells the other side how bad and stupid they are, demonizes and has contempt for the other side.
For years the Democrats have been telling the white Christian capitalist patriarchal working class that they are the enemy, a bunch of deplorables, stupid hateful rubes, etc. The Democratic party has traded on this by making itself the party of minorities and set itself up as the opposition to all this. Instead of making the case that the real issue is class and all the people trying to work for a living need to stick together, the Democratic Party has exploited the talking points to try and get people to vote for them and to obscure the fact that the mainstream Democratic Party is the tool of the rich donors who own it.
There is a lot of truth to the idea that the white straight Christian socially conservative people have done their best to oppress everyone else but the thing is, they still vote and if all you do is alienate them and think of them as the enemy, rather than seeking a true reconciliation of society, they will keep fighting you even harder, rather than at least thinking about uniting in the common cause of a safe and just society for all.
And so we get Trump.
Those who support the wall believe that their biggest problem is immigrants taking their jobs and creating problems for them in other ways. Of course the issues are far far more complex, but that's one of the things they're trying to block out. It's a lot easier to think you can solve the problems by keeping some immigrants from coming in than by acknowledging that the system itself is built for the average working person to struggle at best, because to try and change that seems a lot more daunting.
I doubt the average person supporting the wall has thought things through the way I detail above but I do believe that these are the real reasons they support the wall and so out of compassion I do not condemn them, although I do believe it is a great mistake and I oppose it and I do recognize the element of racism, some overt, some subconscious , which is present in a lot of these people.
To me the greatest problem in the country right now is the lack of empathy for others shown by people on all sides. The old phrase is "walk a mile in my shoes". instead people are so frightened and triggered that they have retreated into partisan camps and are totally unwilling to even try to see things from the other side's point of view, because then they might actually give an inch and they are so afraid that if they give an inch the other side will take a mile. So what we get are partisan battles in which everybody points fingers at each other and tells the other side how bad and stupid they are, demonizes and has contempt for the other side.
For years the Democrats have been telling the white Christian capitalist patriarchal working class that they are the enemy, a bunch of deplorables, stupid hateful rubes, etc. The Democratic party has traded on this by making itself the party of minorities and set itself up as the opposition to all this. Instead of making the case that the real issue is class and all the people trying to work for a living need to stick together, the Democratic Party has exploited the talking points to try and get people to vote for them and to obscure the fact that the mainstream Democratic Party is the tool of the rich donors who own it.
There is a lot of truth to the idea that the white straight Christian socially conservative people have done their best to oppress everyone else but the thing is, they still vote and if all you do is alienate them and think of them as the enemy, rather than seeking a true reconciliation of society, they will keep fighting you even harder, rather than at least thinking about uniting in the common cause of a safe and just society for all.
And so we get Trump.
