‘I Don’t Really Care, Margaret’: The End Of Abusive Empathy

Sometimes history turns on a phrase. Patrick Henry had, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Ronald Reagan gave us, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” And now Vice President JD Vance has given us “I don’t really care, Margaret.”

If you missed it, this new rallying cry emerged during an interview between CBS’s Margaret Brennan and Vance about illegal immigrants who weren’t vetted for terrorist connections. 

When Brennan insisted, “Yes, they were,” Vance cited an illegal immigrant who had planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma on Election Day last November. 

Brennan, perhaps believing this was a gotcha moment, asked, “Was he radicalized here or before he came here?” 

To which Vance delivered the line of the year: “I don’t really care, Margaret.”

At last, a spine. At last, an end to the abusive empathy that has held our country hostage for far too long.

The Tyranny Of The Appeal To Pity

For decades, the Left has operated on two primary emotional threats that happen to also be logical fallacies:

1. The appeal to pity — the idea that any demand for order, justice, or security must be discarded if someone, somewhere, might feel bad about it.
2. The appeal to fear, fear of being called racist — a charge wielded so indiscriminately that it has lost all meaning, save as a tool of manipulation.

Both of these threats are failing. And Vance’s blunt response encapsulates why.

Brennan’s question was an exercise in obfuscation. Well, sure, he was planning a terrorist attack, but was he radicalized before he came here, or was America to blame? The correct response to such nonsense isn’t a 15-minute forensic analysis of his ideological formation — it’s “I don’t really care, Margaret.” Because the problem isn’t when he was radicalized. The problem is that he was here in the first place, and he shouldn’t have been.

Moving to the United States is not a universal human right. Universal human rights are things that all humans always have. Most humans lived before the United States came into existence and yet they had human rights, meaning it’s not possible for them to have had that right — therefore it is not universal. Those who live today have the right to improve their own living conditions but there is no obligation on the part of the United States to move the population of the world here because they haven’t straightened out their own countries.

The usual leftist retort is, “their countries are in ruins because of us!” There comes a time to grow up and face your own problems. “Take responsibility for yourself” is a kindergarten lesson. Many of these places have been this way for centuries and some even before there was a United States. Passing the blame won’t make your life better. 

The Left has long weaponized compassion against the very people tasked with upholding the rule of law. The formula is simple: Ignore or downplay the crime, then shift attention to how the criminal (and family) feels about facing consequences, and then insist that enforcing the law is cruelty.

Brennan’s entire exchange with Vance was built on this faulty foundation. In the modern leftist mind, it’s not enough to ask, Did this man illegally enter the country and plan an act of mass murder? One must also consider, How would he feel if we deported him? Or What would I feel like if I lived in that country instead of the United States? 

Sorry, Margaret, we don’t really care. Write about it in your diary. 

Selective Mercy

Of course, the “be merciful” crowd has its limits. Mercy, as it turns out, only flows in one direction.

Consider Bishop Budde, who recently took it upon herself to lecture President Trump on being merciful. According to the good bishop, mercy demands that we not consider how or why someone broke the law to enter this country, not consider who they harmed, but only how they might feel when they are held accountable.

Funny — where was this mercy when the unborn needed it? Bishop Buddy has encouraged the murder of untold thousands of unborn babies, their silent cries drowned out by the very same “compassion” industry that tells us terrorists deserve our understanding. The “bishop” is not alone. The “Christian” philosophy professors are coming out in droves to post on social media that one cannot be a Christian and support Trump. These same professors smile approvingly as abortions occur and God is mocked at their universities. The same voices that insist we extend boundless mercy to criminals and lawbreakers have no interest in mercy when it comes to the most vulnerable.

It’s almost as if this isn’t about mercy at all. Newsflash: it isn’t. It’s about manipulation.

The Way Forward

Thankfully, conservatives are finally refusing to play this game. The age of emotional manipulation is coming to an end. Vance’s “I don’t really care, Margaret” is more than a quip — it’s a declaration that we will no longer be ruled by guilt trips and crocodile tears.

Let’s put that together with what I consider to be the classic Trump quote about reforming higher education: Let’s get the Marxists, maniacs, and lunatics out of our universities by no longer offering free government money for God-haters. “But how will that make them feel?” Do we care? They have opposed the truth and will face worse consequences if they don’t repent than losing a federal grant.

Too much is at stake. We have a country to defend and rebuild. We have a Christian faith to proclaim and protect. We have families to raise who will love God and love the truth. And we will not be bullied into submission by those who would trade the hard work of justice for the cheap grace of emotional blackmail.

The Left wanted a national conversation. They got one. And now, every time an activist reporter or radical professor tries to steer the discussion away from reality and into an emotional cul-de-sac by using their standard appeal to fear or appeal to pity, Americans have a ready response: “I don’t really care, Margaret.”

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Dr. Owen Anderson is a professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. He is an internationally known scholar, theologian, and a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu instructor. With a Ph.D. in Philosophy, he has authored numerous books, including “The Twelve Arguments” and “The Declaration of Independence and God.”

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.