Asked a liberal friend of mine about your comment. Here was his response. P.S.: I DID NOT SAY THIS. I’M JUST QUOTING.: “The question of Amnesty for illegals is more a matter of practicality. They’re here. They work. Many pay their taxes. Wouldn’t it be better to say, “oops. We fowled up in letting you get away with this for so long and now we’re going to start over?
Comparing the issue to child care I would say that the conservative approach would be tantamount to watching your kid steal candy from the stor every day and pretending not to notice and then once the store decides it doesn’t like the kid doing it spanking him and sending him to bed without his dinner.”
That being said, if I were lazy, distracted, overwhelmed...whatever excuse I can come up with some legitimate elements, some bogus, and I let my kid steal from the store over and over again (and had spent quite enough time cogitating and worrying about all of the psychological and social reasons said child might be behaving so badly)...do I ever get to spank him and send him to bed?
Is your friend suggesting that a government or a parent who makes a mistake, has lapsed in discipline, only has the option of letting the behavior continue or simply chalk it up to “my bad...do-over?”
God I hope not. I have 7 children ranging from 6-14...there isn’t a day that goes by that I am grateful for the do-over the next day.
Sometimes it is as simple as I was lenient in a behavior that I simply didn’t foresee the seriousness of or the implications...my option then is to reaffirm the “law” in my house, impose a consequence and then make sure that the other 6 kids are well aware of the rules and all future infractions will be met with a quicker and firmer response.
As to the other meat of his comment...
They are here....illegally...they work, often inconsistently (day laborers etc.) they pay taxes? Sure not the cleaning folks or the carpenters I have come across in the 3 states I have lived in.
Yes..let’s say whoops...we screwed up....it is as much our fault as yours that this behavior has gone on for so long....
And yes...we are going to start over...