"So the issue is that some on the radical left have picked a narrow "scapegoat", aka ICE agents"
That's the immediate issue, true. But in a broader sense, the issue is that the lefties see themselves as Heroic Rebels, flagrantly "standing up" to "speak truth to power." They think the "civil rights revolution" and the antiestablishment Sixties are still going on, and their righteousness makes them untouchable.
that's a good complementary point, I commented about this elsewhere but this is a problem of how the US has had a kind of uncertain relationship with "civil disobedience" (breaking the law for a "good cause")
Setting aside that the country was founded on an "illegal secession"... in recent memory people broke the law to push racial integration, breaking "racist" laws. So a lot of people were brought up with a memory of believing that it is possible to break the law for a righteous cause (and Christians do believe in this kind of thing, when a government commands sin, but that's the main instance).
The problem is that this can really call in to question all kinds of laws and threaten the rule of law in general. The left feels they can engage in "justified civil disobedience" here by being against ICE agents. ICE agents feel "justified in civil obedience" (rather than disobedience) as the law does not allow illegal immigration. I don't think Trump has necessarily violated the law, but by the logic of this "civil disobedience" mindset, he could blatantly ignore "legal" rulings of judges out of a kind of spirit of "civil disobedience". And this could go on and on.
So I guess, yeah, getting leftists to feel guilt and shame for wrongfully engaging in unjustified civil disobedience might be an effective tactic. Such people often have overactive consciences that are "wayward" (as they "conscientiously object" to things like meat eating, enforcing immigration law, being against drug abuse, etc.) and it would be good if they could be corrected.
"So the issue is that some on the radical left have picked a narrow "scapegoat", aka ICE agents"
That's the immediate issue, true. But in a broader sense, the issue is that the lefties see themselves as Heroic Rebels, flagrantly "standing up" to "speak truth to power." They think the "civil rights revolution" and the antiestablishment Sixties are still going on, and their righteousness makes them untouchable.
that's a good complementary point, I commented about this elsewhere but this is a problem of how the US has had a kind of uncertain relationship with "civil disobedience" (breaking the law for a "good cause")
Setting aside that the country was founded on an "illegal secession"... in recent memory people broke the law to push racial integration, breaking "racist" laws. So a lot of people were brought up with a memory of believing that it is possible to break the law for a righteous cause (and Christians do believe in this kind of thing, when a government commands sin, but that's the main instance).
The problem is that this can really call in to question all kinds of laws and threaten the rule of law in general. The left feels they can engage in "justified civil disobedience" here by being against ICE agents. ICE agents feel "justified in civil obedience" (rather than disobedience) as the law does not allow illegal immigration. I don't think Trump has necessarily violated the law, but by the logic of this "civil disobedience" mindset, he could blatantly ignore "legal" rulings of judges out of a kind of spirit of "civil disobedience". And this could go on and on.
So I guess, yeah, getting leftists to feel guilt and shame for wrongfully engaging in unjustified civil disobedience might be an effective tactic. Such people often have overactive consciences that are "wayward" (as they "conscientiously object" to things like meat eating, enforcing immigration law, being against drug abuse, etc.) and it would be good if they could be corrected.