Republican parents, how can you still support Trump?: Cory Farley

Cory Farley | Reno Gazette-Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Anxious migrant mother awaits reunion with child A Guatemalan family learns a bitter lesson about U.S. immigration policy, which has grown harsher under President Donald Trump. A couple came with their two children to escape what they said were threats at home. Now, they are scattered. (June 29)

It had been so long since I’d changed a diaper that the changee is a 32-year-old physician now. Apparently it’s one of those skills that sticks with you, because when the world's cutest granddaughter tested my recent reprise, there was no leakage.

That was a while ago — she'll be 6 months on Monday — and Grandpa Syndrome has taken me by surprise. I’ve scoffed at doting grandparents, with their boring pictures of identical babies and their tedious recountings of ...

Hang on.

OK, sorry, I’m back. Cami was playing with her foot, and I wanted to get a picture.

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This new human, I think, is the reason the recent family separation issue on the Mexican border hit me hard, and why I’ve abandoned hope that our nation will reunite in my lifetime.

You know the basics: The Trump administration, in an attempt to keep America safe from noticing what a disaster it's been, separated about 2,500 children from their families. As I write this a few hundred have been reunited, but it’s looking more and more like ... well, some of the records may have been ... uh ...

Lost. Reports that the feds plan a giant baby yard sale are surely exaggerated, but the reunification process has stalled. Even in an administration noted for its cack-handedness, this has turned into a remarkably cack-handed event.

Of which almost 90 percent of Republicans, according to some polls, approve.

If you’re a parent who supports Trump — love your kids, love your country, love love love your president — maybe you can clear this up for me:

Do you not realize that only an accident of birth separates you from those desperate to immigrate to the United States?

I know, you’re American ... but that's nothing to be proud of. Be proud of the country if you're still feeling that — it’s harder than it used to be — but your presence here is coincidence.

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I’ve heard criticism of asylum-seeking parents for taking their children on a dangerous and demanding trip. You may have uttered that criticism. So do you believe people abandon their homes and take their children on a month-long exodus for the privilege of washing your dishes, or might their lives be unimaginably worse than you suppose?

This will blow over, probably, and eventually only a few dozen children may be lost in the useless shuffle. What of the long term, though?

Experts (I know many Republicans distrust experts, but stick with me) say even short separations can have lifelong physical and mental consequences. Kids can develop learning disabilities, obesity, dependencies that ruin lives and families. The very structure of their brains may change.

Are you up for that, as a cost of making America great again? Do you reject it as liberal propaganda, spread by liberals who — words of your president here — “don’t mind crime"?

Think back to when your own children were a few months or a few years old. You watched them like vultures in the yard and shadowed them in the park, half-fearful all the time.

Now, suppose an armed, armored giant had snatched them from you and loaded them into a bus, without an explanation, destination unknown. That's OK?

What the hell is wrong with you?

Cory Farley is a freelance writer living in Verdi.