Eric Schmitt: “there is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot these days: ``suicidal empathy.'' It is a term I have used myself on…”

“there is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot these days: ``suicidal empathy.'' It is a term I have used myself on more than one occasion. It means, more or less, exactly what it sounds like: Tolerance, taken to its most extreme and destructive end. This is not the classic Republican tolerance you find in the Federalist Papers or the writings of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It is a tolerance of anything and everything which overpowers all reason and undermines all distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil, order and anarchy. It is an attitude summed up by the famous slogan of the French student radicals in 1968: ``It is forbidden to forbid.'' That is what the phrase ``suicidal empathy'' is meant to describe. We open our borders and import millions of unvetted refugees because we can't bear to turn a single asylum seeker away. We empty out our prisons because we just can't stomach the thought of keeping anyone behind bars. We let violent criminals off with a slap on the wrist because we see them as victims of socioeconomic conditions beyond their control. We turn a blind eye to rioters who loot, steal, and burn their way through our city streets because a riot is just the language of the unheard.…”