Point, counterpoint

It’s been interesting, watching the events that followed out when Florida governor DeSantis sent a busload of illegal aliens (I sneer at the pusillanimous PC label ‘migrants’, they’re foreigners here illegally) to Martha’s Vineyard. As it happens, of course, the discussion of the matter lasted a lot longer than the events themselves, since the MV people got the military to haul these unwelcome intruders away in less than two days.

You know what? I don’t blame them for that. I know I don’t want a crowd of illegals dumped in my community, and if legitimate authorities promptly carted them away, I’d cheer and comment favorably on this uncharacteristic example of government efficiency.

I don’t even blame them (much) for doing it after having styled Martha’s Vineyard as a “sanctuary destination” during the early days of Donald Trump’s administration. The ‘not in my backyard’ phenomenon is not limited to leftists/progressives, all kinds of people have found that living with the results of their stated principles is a very different matter from blithely voicing those principles. I don’t respect that — changing your stand once it affects you personally does not deserve praise — but I don’t go crazy condemning it, either.

No, what really stands out for me is how they managed to reverse positions instantly and effortlessly, while continuing to sanctimoniously complain about how awful was what DeSantis had done.

Even if I didn’t agree with him (when, in fact, I do agree), I would have to recognize that DeSantis was acting in accordance with positions he’s been expressing for a long time. Wrong or right in those opinions, he has been consistent in his statements and his actions.

Whereas the holier-than-thou virtue-signalers changed directions the moment they were the ones who had to live with the results, but still feel themselves to be morally superior to the lowbrow primitives who say ugly, reprehensible things like, “No, it’s our country, we need to enforce our borders and not allow non-citizens to invade illegally and en masse.”

They maintain this elevated opinion of themselves even after having behaved in exact accordance with the sentiments they so vehemently deplore.

They look down on us because they don’t agree with us.

We look down on them because they don’t even agree with themselves.