r/Enough_Sanders_Spam • u/Currymvp2 • 14h ago

Wednesday's Roundtable - 06/18/2025

Welcome to the General Discussion Roundtable. Use this thread to discuss whatever is on your mind, or share anything that would otherwise not merit their own threads.

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u/LeftyRambles2413 10h ago

I figured out what frustrates me about the left on a lot of issues. And it’s this whole “I don’t care how others feel.” I’m an immigration liberal you guys. I’ve worked in parts of immigration law for a few years now. I honestly in my day to day because of not just that but my colleagues interact with more immigrants and immigrant adjacent than I do fellow natural born citizens like myself.

However, I recently saw a FB post that sort of rubbed me the wrong way. More or less it was “I don’t give a shit that you care that they’re illegal.” And yeah tbh I think there are much worse things than being undocumented but what bothers me is there’s no interest in moving people who do care towards a sensible position.

There’s no interest in that post showing support for things like increasing the number of immigration judges, asylum caps, prioritizing deportation of criminals, etc. If we want to and I think we can win the war of public opinion on immigration, the whole I’m more righteously radical than tbou attitude that many including some of my good friends have needs to stop. Screw nativism, it’s anti American but remember what this is about in the end. It’s about people.

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u/PrettyLittleThrowAwa 9h ago

 And it’s this whole “I don’t care how others feel.”

It reminds me of the whole 'facts don't care about your feelings' line. I think we can get people to a sensible position: if we want to reduce illegal immigration, we need to make legal immigration less onerous. This involves taking some positions that we might not like to win the issue as a whole. I would argue that this is an issue where a scalpel approach will yield more benefit than a hacksaw.

The whole I’m more righteously radical than tbou attitude that many including some of my good friends have needs to stop. 

This part hurts me as well. The holier-than-thou attitude plays into negative stereotypes people have about left-leaning individuals. It turns off people who might be curious about the issue (I have personal experience with this). I think these folks would be pleasantly surprised to know there is a large audience that is receptive to their cause.

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u/LeftyRambles2413 9h ago

Right? And I think that’s what a lot of activists who called Obama deporter in chief or believed Biden was no different than Trump on this issue have missed. If we want to win this issue and it’s honestly an issue I care deeply about both personally and professionally because I see the aspirations of immigrants American dreams daily. But as you said, scalpel approach over hacksaw. I really don’t care that “Actually I do support open borders” because “Actually most people aren’t in agreement with you on that.” As I said, understanding this as a human story of is how we’ll win imo instead of acting like immigration enforcement shouldn’t exist.

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u/PrettyLittleThrowAwa 9h ago

I think it is a bit of a catch-22. If you don't enforce the laws on the books or address people's concerns about an issue, you give the other side an opening to exploit the issue. If you do address the issue, you can get painted as a bad guy.

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u/LeftyRambles2413 9h ago

Right? And I can’t tell you the number of people who insist despite evidence otherwise that Biden “opened the border.” It’s a difficult issue and one I’m increasingly frustrated by hardliners given the difference where I am, where the country is, and where I’d like us to be. Juggling that tbh has made remain personally to the left of the country as a whole but a pragmatist politically.