I was chatting with a dude who lives a few blocks over. He’s a Republican. I’m not a Republican. But he’s a nice guy, a good father, friendly and warm. Maybe 2025 dictates I’m not supposed to like him, but I like him. It is what it is.
Anyhow, he stopped me to ask how I feel about the New York mayoral race, because he knows I’m from the Big Apple. From jump, I understood what he was looking for. He wanted to watch me twist and turn and struggle with Zohran Mamdani. He wanted me to stumble and gripe and spin in the wind.
Instead, I said I haven’t been following it too closely. Certainly not closely enough to be an expert. And I followed with my own question:
“How do you feel about all the ICE raids?”
Pause.
He told me he loved them. It was about time we got the bad guys and kicked them out. “I’m thrilled,” he said.
“But what about the housekeepers, the lawn guys, the folks waiting at Home Depot to get day work?” I said. “What about them?”
“I don’t want anything to happen to those people,” he said. “Only the bad guys.”
“But,” I countered, “it’s mainly people who haven’t done anything criminal besides being undocumented.”
He did not believe me.
“That’s not true,” he said. “It’s the rapists and drug dealers.”
And, in that moment, it hit me: He watches Fox News, and only Fox News. If he’s receiving information, it’s via the IV drop of Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters. He’s not lying about the ICE raids—he literally doesn’t know. Wouldn’t know. His bubble has yet to be penetrated.
That, my friends, is where we need to come in. We need to penetrate the bubbles of Orange County. We need to make sure people know what’s going down—specifically in regards to the ICE raids. Everyone here knows someone Latino, and most everyone here knows someone undocumented. They are our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors. Sincerely, I think most right-wingers don’t want them scooped up and deported.
But they have no real clue what’s happening.
They’ve been too busy watching the news.
I have no sympathy for these Republicans at all.
I used to work at a place in the 80's where some coworkers would bring in a radio, turn on rightwing talk shows and listen to it all day. I'm talking about Rush Limbaugh and the likes. So I heard all the vile rightwing rhetoric they spewed out daily. Telling their viewers that Democrats hated America and were tryinmg to destroy it. Then they would go home and turn on FOX news and get another dose. That was 40 years ago. After all these years of hearing that kind of propaganda, they are completely brainwashed. Yes, they are in a cult and whatever you say, you will never get through to them.
The CEO at my wife’s office is, in no particular order, a Trumper and Republican. He is not dumb. However, he too is in the ‘they are only deporting criminals’ universe. Not going to be easy getting these people to understand reality.