A seven-year-old girl sets out with her father on a Journey of 2,000 miles to seek asylum in the US. Conditions in her Guatemalan village were so dire that this dirty, exhausting trek across an inhospitable terrain seemed a better option than staying amidst fear and squalor. On arrival in the US, she is detained by border agents. Then, after eight hours in custody, she suffers seizures from dehydration and dies.

Conservatives use this tale of a girl, who has known little but suffering in her short life, as a warning to others to stay in their hell-holes (shitholes) and quit on their dreams of a better life. Not one sheds a tear for Jakelin Caal Maquin. And they call themselves Christians.

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reacted to the death with no consideration for misdeeds of her department but instead chose ‘victim blaming’ “This is just a very sad example of the dangers of this journey. This family chose to cross illegally… I cannot stress [enough] how dangerous this journey is.”

Jason Chaffetz offered this legalistic inhumanity “I think the message should be, ‘Stay there, stay in your country of origin, go to the embassy…’ That’s the moral message that should be there. That’s the problem.” If that were a viable option thousands would have taken advantage of it. It’s an absurd suggestion. How many Guatemalans have been offered sanctuary in the US?

The ‘moral message’ offered by conservatives is ‘we don’t care, because we have no humanity’. Chaffetz took the opportunity to ice his hate-cake by blaming the opposition: “I get the sense that Democrats are saying ‘come on up and apply.’”

We shouldn’t be surprised; conservatives thought ripping families apart to deter refugee seekers was just Jim Dandy.

Lack of empathy looms large as a ‘value’ in the collective psyche of the right-wing. A Federal judge strikes down Obamacare, and from Trump on down the horde of heartless bastards celebrate as if it’s the Fourth of July. Should the decision stand after Supreme Court review, millions will lose their healthcare. Pre-existing conditions will bar others. And annual & lifetime caps on healthcare will become the order of the day.

Trump couldn’t contain his glee, tweeting:

As I predicted all along, Obamacare has been struck down as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster! Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions. Mitch and Nancy, get it done!

The idea that Republicans will sign off on a “STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions” after two years of failure when they had all the power is as ridiculous as suggesting Guatemalans go to the US Embassy.

Trump wasn’t done gloating over others’ misfortune. The news of the Weekly Standard’s demise inspired him to tweet this vicious, small-minded screed:

The pathetic and dishonest Weekly Standard, run by failed prognosticator Bill Kristol (who, like many others, never had a clue), is flat broke and out of business. Too bad. May it rest in peace!

Not a thought for the employees out of a job. But it’s just more of the same. He celebrates his serial bankruptcies and business failures as strokes of business genius, with not one iota of reflection on the lives ruined by joblessness. His complete lack of concern extends effortlessly to his sub-contractors and the ‘students’ at his fraud mill, ‘Trump University’.

His zealots celebrate with him, presumably with the laughable belief that he cares about them. 

Republicans extol job creation — as long as the jobs don’t pay anything. Unionism, labor’s best bastion against abuse, is destroyed by Orwellian named “Right to Work laws”. Equal pay measures are tossed away. The tax code is written to favor a wealth grab by the rich. And corporate regulation is dismantled to allow easy profit at the expense of the consumers’ health — both physical and financial.

Clumps of cells in a woman’s womb are sacrosanct, but Republicans accord newborns no such respect. To a conservative it is a crime to be born poor.

Americans are shot by the thousands every year – but those lives are small beer compared to the gun companies need to flog ever more powerful guns, with more lethal bullets, in bigger magazines. Spending on mental health is slashed — but the right of a lunatic to own a gun shall not be infringed.

And good luck if you are a minority.

Or Muslim.

Or a little girl dying of thirst.

The post A Little Girl Shows Conservatives Just Don’t Give a Damn. appeared first on The Critical Mind.