Left and Right differences

In a press briefing given by Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, he addressed the border crisis caused by the Biden Administration changes to immigration policy. When some of those changes were made, the Biden Administration claimed they were rescinding policies that were “xenophobic,” which is the same as calling the policies and Trump Administration itself racist.

They didn’t bother explaining what objectives they had in changing those policies, other than the basic premise of most Democrat policies these last few years, which is “Orange Man bad,” meaning that anything Trump said was good or right was by definition bad and wrong, and usually motivated by some form of hatred or phobia.

So much for “steel-manning” your opponents’ arguments or assuming their best intentions. Nope. What the Left does is the opposite and assumes the worst intentions at all times, even when the person being attacked clearly asserts the innocence of those intentions.

Gov. Abbott, on the other hand, said that the Biden policies were motivated by “compassion,” and so did his Chief of Public Safety, while explaining that these “compassionate” policies of Biden’s were causing a huge surge in human trafficking, exploitation, and abuse of women and children.

Never did Abbott cast aspersions on Biden’s motivations or intentions. He only assumed the best while trying to deal with the worst.

But that’s not how the Left operates. They routinely assume nearly any policy a conservative holds is fueled by hatred. The most blatant and ridiculous example is when they criticize pro-life persons like myself of being “anti-woman.” You really think I want to stop unborn children from being destroyed in the womb because I hate women? Me, the son of a very strong, pioneering businesswoman, husband of an awesome wife, and father to two precious daughters we adopted from a foreign country? You really think that when I want to save all children—male, female; black, white—from the scourge of abortion and to help the women caught up in that difficult situation to find a solution that is best for them, that I am anti-woman?

That sounds like a self-serving argument, and that’s because it is. Leftists routinely do this to their opponents because they want to redirect attention from the often disastrous real-world consequences of their policies, which are motivated by a mixture of compassion and selfishness.

Why do Democrats want to encourage a flood of illegal immigrants? Partially it’s to get back at Trump, partially it’s because they believe in open borders, and partially because they (especially the higher ups in the party) want more potential voters. But the bottom line is that they are willing to sacrifice the well-being and very lives of the most defenseless migrants—the women and children—in order to achieve their ends, be they cynical or not.

The same thing happens with gender ideology, where adults who struggle with gender identity are willing to encourage children to chemically harm their bodies and even undergo sex re-assignment surgeries in order for their views of gender to be implemented in society. Or when they’re willing to completely eviscerate girl’s sports in order to accommodate the feelings of a biological male who identifies as a woman.

The Left seems not to care a lick when children in the inner city are injured or killed by the rise in crime that has resulted from the insipid and utterly unjustified campaigns to “defund the police,” which is also based on the utterly false notion that most — if not all — cops are racist and target black men for execution.

Or let’s consider the culture, where the Left assumes Dr. Seuss was racist and so wants to burn some of his books, but celebrates “artists” like Cardi B who appears on a prime time awards show (Grammy’s) barely clad and simulates lesbian sex acts on stage. She is celebrated as a feminist hero and yet the young girls she’s modeling behavior for will not do well in life should they imitate their musical heroine.

Again, what happens to children as a result of the policies and ideologies of the Left wing in our country seems to be of no interest to them. The chaos that results from family dysfunction, the poverty that results from encouraging people to have children out of wedlock, the actual death of pre-born children at the hands of abortionists, and the exploitation of children by human traffickers: all of these are simply the unavoidable costs of pursuing the Leftist agenda, which in the end will not even result in much good at all for the adults in the room. Mainly, it will make the Leftists feel better about themselves and distract them from the misery of their own lives.

Look, our country has many flaws, but it’s like a big family. When you look at a big, happy family, the children often have varying levels of success in life. Some do quite well and emulate their parents, some do just fine, but a few may do quite badly, even though they had the same advantages and loving attention of the parents.

That’s how life works out when you have free will and can reject the gifts given to you from your family or your country. But the solution isn’t to destroy the concept of family or tear down the country. The solution is much harder, requiring individuals to look to themselves to improve the situation, not simply transfer their frustrations to society at large.

That’s what the Left encourages because those unhappy people will then vote for them, give them power, and make them feel needed because of the culture of dependency that’s created. That dynamic is contrary to human flourishing, as is telling someone only what they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. Therein lies true compassion and love.

Trey Hoffman

Peachtree City, Ga.