Dick's thinking seeks a semi-divine blessing, an absolutism that closes all argument and shuts out doubt; he would have another heart attack upon hearing that the U.S. Constitution is imperfect, flexible, and temporal. As with the Bible (which he has never read), the Constitution (which he has never read) must be interpreted "literally, as the Founders intended" though that would literally leave us with a nation where white landowners like Dick enjoy freedom and liberty while blacks remain enslaved and women remain unable to vote or own property.
Dick is uneasy with ambiguity, exceptions, gray areas, and individual interpretations. His deep rage against illegal immigration fixates on breaking The Law, as if a few phrases about entry into the United States were the summit of all human jurisprudence. "What part of illegal don't they understand!" he exclaims, as if that closes the case. Yet Dick violates The Law constantly, as we all do -- jaywalking, speeding, offering his 20-year-old nephew a beer, and fudging his tax details. Dick simply cannot grasp the concept of legal flexibility (except when he or his family require flexibility).
Dick can't admit that the Law can easily be ignored when the actions cause no serious harm and may even be beneficial. "Illegal immigrants," no matter how much their cheap labor benefits him on rental repairs, are an unmitigated evil because (see #1) they are the ultimate strangers: often dark-skinned, always foreign, and violators of the Sacred Law.
4. Belief in American Supremacy and Disregard of Universal Human Rights
It's logical to root for the home team. But it never occurs to Dick that international relations are not a win-lose ball game but a delicate web of life-altering negotiations based on the shakiest trust in respect and global goodwill. Like his dismissal and disregard of strangers (see #1), Dick will not accept that all men are created equal applies to all Earthlings, not just Americans and not just America's prosperous, Republican white males. When it comes to foreign aid, already the tiniest fraction of U.S. gross national product and shamefully smaller than that of most other advanced nations, Dick is ready to withdraw even our chintzy pittance. "Charity begins at home," he announces, proud of his originality. He doesn't care about an unmet neighbor's unmet, dying needs, so why should he care about freeloaders and chiselers in some unheard-of, faraway, troubled foreign land? Earth, apparently, is not Dick's home.
Dick supported Bush's 2003 Iraq invasion with fervor -- for him, our aggression was a clear-cut choice, freeing oil markets from Saddam's control, good guys pulverizing the bad guys with superior force -- but he carefully dressed up his position with solemn intonations about the Iraqi people "suffering under oppression."
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