I mean, deport him where? Any other country would probably deport him right back here.

This is 100% how every single dictatorship in existence today works. Almost all countries in the world hold elections. But some are more democratic than others. Every single tyrant in power today has been or claim to have been democratically elected.

Here's the thing. If the Left doesn't vote, they look at the people who do vote.

I was educated by some old school Communists; folks who actually were in Spain fighting Franco and who got blacklisted in the 1950s.

One story they always told was that in 1968 a lot of young radicals were saying that Humphrey was as bad as Nixon and they would never vote for him

The folks who had been around told the non-voters that Nixon was truly terrible and that they should do what they could to defeat him.

I've yet to see an election where the Left sat by idly and got anything good.

Not sure if its the same study that we're talking about here, but there was a study done on conservatives and (neo)liberals empathy levels towards others during the covid pandemic's initial onset, one of the works it cited as supporting evidence looked into political biases in relation to empathy in 2010, and while those classified as liberals (not remembering how they defined liberal for the paper, will have to find my citation & check later) more often attributed external factors to people's suffering (someone is poor because they suffer from bigotry based discrimination), conservatives almost universally attributed personal factors to those same people's suffering (someone is poor because they use drugs) UNLESS that person was listed as conservative in which case they were more likely to attribute it to an external factor.

They do have empathy, just only for those who are also conservative.

Interestingly, if I'm recalling which paper it was correctly, jordan b peterson (who is now a right wing influencer) actually contributed to it, this was BEFORE he started appearing in right wing circles and was while he was still someone who would be considered respectable

IMPORTANT: I'll have to find my statistics notes to back this up, so for now, please take this with a heavy grain of salt

For me loving a country is a natural love of home. It's a sentimental attachment. I want my country to be a nice place the way I want my home to be a nice place. I want to feel the pride of both. If my kitchen stinks because of spoiled food and piles of dirty dishes I don't feel right. Same when my country stinks of poverty, homelessness, sick people who can't afford cures, etc. I want my home to be better than that. Recognizing faults doesn't mean someone doesn't love their country. it means they're honest.

The left hates the evil this country does. The right hates the people who live in this country but are slightly different than they are.