The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“Today’s Republican Party and ‘conservative’ movement are committed to what has been described as ‘sado-politics,’ meaning a political worldview and strategy in which causing pain, misery, death and other suffering is both a means to win power and control and also a goal in and of itself. Sado-politics is also an extension and reflection of fascism, authoritarianism and other forms of illiberal and corrupt power. . . .
“Perhaps the most vivid recent example of the Republican Party’s political sadism came on Christmas Eve, when Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas sent more than 100 migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ official residence, on what turned out to be the coldest night Washington has experienced in decades. . . .
“To paraphrase philosopher Cornel West, Abbott’s acts of cruelty against refugees and immigrants illustrate a larger project by the Republican fascists and the white right, whose goal is to make Black and brown people (and members of other targeted groups) feel unsafe, insecure, subject to arbitrary violence, and hated simply for who they are. The ultimate goal is to turn human beings into objects so that their systematic abuse and mistreatment becomes seen as ‘legitimate’ and ‘natural.’
“Violence and destruction are both the main organizing principles of fascism and other forms of authoritarianism and illiberal politics, and also the logical if not inevitable outcome of such ideologies. . .
“When the Republican fascists and their allies engage in acts of political sadism against those deemed not to be ‘real Americans,’ they are actually normalizing the use of such violence and cruelty and death as a weapon against all people. The migrants and refugees who became part of a white supremacist Christmas Eve spectacle are not alien or unknowable. If America’s fascists get their way, all of us could become subject to that kind of treatment, for any reason or none at all. We have been warned. At this point, inaction or passivity in the face of such evil is a choice. Turning away from the politics of cruelty is effectively to endorse it.” — Once Again, the Cruelty Is the Whole Damn Point, Chauncey Devega, Salon, 1/4/23 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: This article is a masterpiece of reckless overstatement and hysteria. The writer appears to embrace the notion that enforcing our immigration laws and securing our borders is “cruelty” and “sadism.” He also maintains it is “fascism,” a slur which leftists today increasingly fling at conservatives. The charge is absurd. Fascism is an ideology espousing state worship and a powerful central government. Most American conservatives, as proponents of limited government, favor exactly the opposite. They do believe, however, that border control is a legitimate function of government. Without it, you don’t have a country under the rule of law.
The writer seems particularly incensed at Texas Gov. Abbott for sending a bus of illegal aliens to the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris. But Abbott’s action, and similar ones by other governors, are hardly acts of wanton cruelty. The aliens who arrived at Harris’s residence had boarded the bus voluntarily, and they were not left in the cold after they arrived at their destination. They did not suffer “pain, misery and death.” The purpose of busing them is to highlight the failure of border control that the Biden Administration is mightily striving to downplay and hide. Sending migrants to the homes and communities of open border advocates has embarrassed those advocates and focused national attention on their hypocrisy.
If the writer really wants to consider cruelty, he should reflect on the cruelties brought about by Biden’s largely open border. His policies encourage migrants to make dangerous trips, while dragging along children–which exposes all of them to the tender mercies of drug cartels. Cruelty can thrive when chaos replaces law and order.
Since this writer likes to speculate on others’ character and motives, it is not inappropriate to speculate on his motivations—and those of advocates like him. Their indifference to border security suggests little patriotic attachment to America and its traditional heritage. Indeed many leftists view mass immigration as a way to remake American society, either as a means to change the electorate or to promote violent revolution. The goal is a dictatorial state to enforce the left’s version of “social justice.” These leftists have no problem with “authoritarianism” when they are the ruling authorities.