For as long as I've been alive, Democrats have always styled themselves as the party that cares. They've always claimed to be the ones looking out for the oppressed and downtrodden, and the party that protects the poor, the women, the LGBT, and whoever else the flavor of the month is from those dastardly Republicans.
But over the course of the past few years, the idea that the Democrats are the "party of empathy" has begun to shift. According to the Daily Caller, Democrats and Republicans are now tied for the title:
New polling found that Democrats and Republicans are tied 33% to 33% on the question of who “cares more for the needs of people” for the first time in over 30 years, according to a post-tariff Quinnipiac poll. Democrats historically held a double digit lead over Republicans on that question going all the way back to 1994, when the party led on that question by 19 points.
It's not difficult to see how this view about Republicans' empathy became a bit more believable. The right has always been the more empathetic party to the people, the way it expressed it just looked a bit less warm on paper, and that was exploited by the left for decades.
Moreover, Republicans empathized with Americans, whereas the left empathized with a global community. The left's empathy also only extended to anyone who fell under its protective umbrella, while the right's empathy wasn't nearly as selective. The Republican approach to taking care of the people sometimes looked cold, uncaring, and prejudiced with the right framing, but thanks to current events, the truth is starting to emerge about what real empathy looks like.
And to be sure, I'm very pleased that people are starting to see the truth. The idea that a voter perceives the party as being caring is integral to many people's votes. If someone believes that they aren't seen or willing to be heard from, it forms a feeling of disconnect from an elected representative and puts their career in danger.
But the thing that makes me feel a bit on the uneasy side about all this is that I worry people on the right will get confused about the importance of empathy.
If you watch the left, they put a lot of stock in it. They're very performative about their empathy to the point where they become stupid about it. Case in point, the Democrat Party's obsession with showing their care and willingness to fight for Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a clear example of this.
The man is an MS-13 gang member, according to many, many sources, which means he was one of society's greatest modern villains. MS-13 earns its status as a domestic terrorist group in awful ways.
Yet the left, in its effort to show how much it cares for people who are oppressed by Republicans, is pulling out all the stops to express its willingness to defend this man's reputation and citizenship status. Do they actually care about him? Not even a little bit. He's a prop they would abandon or even destroy themselves if the need called for it.
But they do this because empathy has become so important to them as a party. Ever since I joined the fight, I can recall some very standout moments where the left put on shows of kindness and warmth right in the middle of doing something heinous because they know how it will play for the cameras.
But Republicans show their empathy through action first, not performance. To be sure, a little bit of performance helps, and the Trump administration is a master of this.
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But I think Republicans should remember that part of the reason the Democrats find themselves in the losing situation they are is because their obsession with empathy caused them to lose sight of real empathy. They turned the wrong people into villains and made villains the good guys, all in an attempt to be the party that cares about the victim.
For you and me, this seems like common sense... but for a politician, a focus group, an activist group, or corporations, this is an easy trap to fall into. Republicans have fallen into it before as well. We called it "compassionate conservatism," and it nearly destroyed the party.
It's something to watch out for. The moment "we care" starts becoming a regular part of the vernacular is the moment performative empathy starts becoming a priority, and if Republicans want to maintain its ability to be the Party of getting the American people's business done, it needs to make sure empathy doesn't become too much of a priority.
Sometimes hard decisions need to be made, and feelings can't trump what's necessary.
