It all started with this tweet from Franklin Leonard, a film producer and progressive commentator on all things black:

Today my thoughts are of Captain Alix Idrache, a US Army helicopter pilot, who graduated at the top of his West Point class with a degree in physics in 2016.

He's also a Haitian immigrant. pic.twitter.com/AFOsbGRAJs

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) September 12, 2024

First, a little backstory. Alix Idrache legally immigrated to the U.S. in 2009 as a teenage boy, joining his father who had come in search of economic opportunity. He spoke barely any English, but by 2016, he was graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While it’s entirely possible that Idrache gained admission based on affirmative action policies, I think it’s safe to say that he could have easily gotten in on merit too—he was the top physics graduate in his class, and is capable enough to fly helicopters. Clearly, Idrache is an exceptionally bright young man.

And, not only does Idrache possess a gifted mind, but a patriot’s heart too. After the above-photo went viral in 2016, Idrache wrote this on social media:

‘I am humbled and shocked at the same time. Thank you for giving me a shot at the American Dream and may God bless America, the greatest country on earth.’

…

‘I could not help but be flooded with emotions knowing that I will be leading these men and women who are willing to give their all to preserve what we value as the American way of life. To me, that is the greatest honor. Once again, thank you.’

According to another source, Idrache also said that although he has great “love” his homeland of Haiti, he’s only willing to die for America:

‘I love Haiti, but I would probably think twice before I go to war for it. But if I had to die for this [American military service], I’d do it.’

Back to the progressive Leonard: I’m sure many of us right off the bat can spot the obvious fallacy, and that is appealing to the extreme. Idrache is an outlier compared to the Haitian migrants dominating the news cycle, which is the group of people to whom Leonard is drawing a comparison. Like the migrants wrecking Springfield, Idrache was raised in the extremely dysfunctional Haiti, but there’s a difference; Idrache abandoned that culture to adopt our American way of life, assimilating so much so that he’s willing to die for it. (I doubt anyone looks at Idrache and wonders if he is cooking cats over a gas stove, or lopping heads off the pond ducks.) He didn’t come to America and stay a Haitian, bringing all that chaos with him, he became an American. (In fact, I’d be more than willing to trade 20,000 Haitians like Idrache for 20,000 Democrat voters, if that many Idrache-like Haitians even exist. Idrache isn’t just an outlier among Haitians, he appears to be an outlier among people in general.)

Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s get to the X thread, a debate between Leonard and Wade Miller, the executive director of Citizens for Renewing America, broken down in hilarious fashion by a writer for American Spectator, Nate Hochman.

Exhibit A:

This how every single argument for mass immigration goes.

Step 1: "Oh, you have concerns about [X group] coming into your country? Well, here's one person from that group who's good. What do you think of that, huh? Do you hate this person, too??" pic.twitter.com/DRLIo0YVkh

— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) September 13, 2024

Hochman lists the “steps” of how a progressive argues, as seen below:

Reading Leonard’s devolving arguments almost makes you feel like this guy from Star Trek:

The more you observe those on the left, the more you see how empty their positions are.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.