ICE is living the American Dream

 Who among us has not secretly fantasized about shooting some smartass in the face for defying our authority? Seriously, what's the point of having guns if you can't use them to enforce your will?

The freedom-loving patriots of the right wing never cared about freedom for everyone, only freedom for themselves to exert force on all of the types of people they deem inferior. If you judge human value solely by the ability to dominate by physical force, they are correct. It's all about the hierarchy. You're either dishing it out or taking it. They have always only wanted the freedom to dish it out with no consequences except at the hands of someone better at dishing it out. Let every dispute be solved by combat or the threat thereof.

How many people who deplored Kristi Noem shooting her puppy for being unruly celebrate her goon shooting a lesbian in the face for being mouthy? You have to realize that a solid percentage of the voting public still thinks that gunning down people they view as deviants is a step in the right direction for this country. It's nowhere near a majority, but it's not a tiny number, either. They feel fully safe from that kind of street justice, because they are the good people, the righteous people, the true Americans. And they don't care who they have to kill to secure their dominance.

There is no shared humanity with people who don't consider you human.

Their American dream may not be your American dream, but it is as American as slavery and genocide. As such, it does not invalidate every other, more welcoming American dream, but it traces its roots back before the Mayflower. Our only power against it is the vote. Outnumber the bastards, and show up every time. We can also educate, and hope to prevail gradually in the contest for hearts and minds, but well short of that we just have to keep working the system on which we base our rights.

All you people who like to yap about revolution and starting over, remember this: you lose everything in the process. Starting from scratch in this modern, interconnected world is a far more dicey prospect than it was in the 18th Century. You don't really want to render the entire country defenseless while you haggle over the perfect constitution you will use to replace the tattered and scribbled-on document from which we currently work. Your whole concept of what rights you should have comes from those 18th Century documents.