The farmers are on the move. Finally. Itās been a cold week, as chilling as any week in the middle of the winter, with a few mornings of frost, and cold winds roaring through. I watched a maple treeās leaves wilted, trembling on a rare still day, as if those leaves were trying to warm themselves or trying to say something. The lilacs have lasted longer than normal. I walk past their scent, heavy, the smell of spring which is better than the chemical that blew in dust across our fieldsāchemical I taste. I make sure docs know Bruce and I have been exposed to the sprayāherbicide, fertilizer, whatever else.
This week I posted a perspective on our local NPR Station that touches on the political, something I prefer to avoid especially when people want to talk politics to āunderstand.ā I donāt have a mind to call up things Iāve studied to give a reason. Beside politics are ephemeral compared to the people who bear the image of God, who as Lewis said next to the eucharist are the most holy thing weāll encounter. Ā Well, hereās what I wrote.
Not again. Not another assassination attempt on President Trump. I watched the videos of journalists crouching by their tables, of the gun man running through the hallway. I listened to Trump say he hoped the dinner would continue. He looked brave and tired, maybe close to tears.
I wondered how the would-be assassin got so close. Forty-five years ago, I was at the Washington Sheraton promoting well known Christian authors, when the Secret Service cleared us out of our rooms so we could avoid the sniffer dogs because President Reagan was speaking. The black SUVs parked outside were something to see.
Yet again, national chaos grabbed my attention. I began doom scrolling. One writer wondered how these lone wolf types seem to know where security is porous. Others said this attempt like Butler was staged. But this time it was so Trump could get his ballroom. With regards to the would-be assassin, NPR correspondent Odette YousefĀ said, āBut honestly, his content falls into a kind of mainstream left now.ā1 During the protest outside the correspondentsā dinner, a man held a sign–Death to Trump supporters.
āRainbow!ā I yelled, jumping up from the news to run into the sun shower, to see a rainbow as bright as Iāve ever seen arching over the neighborsā farms. Why am I doom scrolling when thereās this? When daily I walk past redwing blackbirds sitting on sticks of weeds? I thought about the yard sign āHate has no home here,ā how it also applies to Trump and his supporters.
Iām Katie Andraski and thatās my perspective.2
I wonder how you feel reading this. Are you hoping Iām pointing fingers at Trump and his supporters? Iām not. I realized after I recorded it that the ending is ambiguous, even though the essay points to that line: āDeath to Trump Supporters.ā Is the protestorās next move a weapon aimed at me?
(Iām not exactly a Trump supporter, but I felt he was better than the alternative. Heās done some good things and some awful things. Iāve given up trying to make an opinion because there are dogs to walk, a horse to curry, books to read.)
Is the death-to-Trump-supporters protestorās next move a weapon aimed at me?
Even my own governor, J.B. Pritzker has called for violence against Republicans. State representative Kevin Schmidt summarizes what he was saying a year ago:
Referring to President Trump at a speech in March, Pritzker said, āBullies respond to one thing, and one thing only, a punch in the face.ā During that same speech at a California LGBTQ convention, Pritzker said, āI wonāt continue to advocate that we wage conventional political fights when what we really need is to become street fighters.ā Pritzkerās calls for political upheaval and his wink and nod toward political violence didnāt end there. Just this week, at a New Hampshire Democratic party fundraiser, Pritzker ramped up the rhetoric. First, he started his speech by saying, āItās time to fight everywhere and all at once.ā
Then, Pritzker dipped his toes in even more dangerous rhetorical waters.
āNever before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.ā3
So my governor is saying as a Republican I canāt know a moment of peace? He is advocating āa punch in the faceā for his political opponent?
While Iām not comfortable pointing fingers at the left, because judge not and all that, I feel it might be useful to point out my alarm at the leftās violence. Itās disturbing, well frightening, to hear Governor Pritzker say I should not have a momentās peace, when all I want to do is walk the road, say good morning to red wing blackbirds and offer thanks. All I want to do is wave at the neighbor driving by and take my other neighbor to her hair appointments trading stories about the fields.
Using the language of 12 Step groups, Beckett Adams in āPolitical Whataboutism has Gotten out of Controlā says, āThe first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. And the left has a very real problem. NearlyĀ as great a problem as left-wing violence is the leftās refusal to admit it has a problem.ā4
Iāve thought this for years. When Biden talked about how white nationalists were a threat, I wondered whereād that come from? Itās not what I saw as cities burned across this country. Ironically it turns out the notorious white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, turned out to be funded by the supposed anti racist group the Southern Poverty Law Center, in order to keep the funding coming in for their anti-racist work.
Adams continues:
When a Republican or conservative is shot, stabbed, or beaten by a left-wing assailant, the activist left adopts one of three standard responses:
The first: The violence is deserved.Ā He had it coming! The second: It didnāt happen.Ā Itās a hoax! The third, and by far the most common, is: Right-wing violence is still worseā¦
Anything to deny legitimacy to the idea that conservatives deserve dignity, sympathy, or even empathy. To grant any of these would be to concede that conservatives are human. But in the universe of left-wing activism, the right is evil incarnate.4
Seeing someone as evil incarnate is the ultimate in dehumanization, and when people are dehumanized, itās not a big step to move from a sign saying ādeath to Trump supportersā to actually carrying it out.
Adams summarizes the violence: You can have multiple presidential assassination attempts; the attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh; the murder of Kirk; multiple shooting attacks on ICE facilities; a violent, weeks-long siege of a federal courthouse in Portland; āsocial justiceā-themed riots of all shapes and sizes; and nearly 100 crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life groups vandalized or firebombed since the 2022Ā DobbsĀ decision, to name just a few, and the response from dedicated leftists will still be:Ā I donāt care; the right is still worse.4
And donāt forget the Bernie Sanders supporter who tried to assassinate Republicans at a softball game.
I hear whispers that civil war is coming in the comments sections. People who just want to be left alone and live their lives are growing weary of the leftās violence, the leftās insisting on getting their way, if they donāt, a tantrum erupts. I see a number of āvote redā comments that were silenced a few years ago when cancel culture was dominant.
These days feel like a replay of the late sixties, early seventies. Those years felt like our civil order was fraying. I wondered if Iād have a country where I could grow up, go to college, get married, build a career. Back then bombings of academic and government buildings were common. I remember how jumpy I was with regards to the moral majority and talk of revolution on the evangelical side and how a journalist friend said the inertia of the majority of the American people would prevent that. Now Iām not so sure. Families and friends have spun apart over politics.
Social media has given everyone the right to be an amateur pundit, to say things we might not say in person. Ben Sasse in Them says, āThe incentive structure in the media complex rewards pushing the gas, not tapping the brakesāor qualifying a pointā¦No one wants nuance. We want white hats and black hatsā5.
I dread the reaction to this post, dread the outrage, when the point Iām trying to make has to do with how political rhetoric is fomenting violence. Outrage is the enemy. Outrage that silences, that abandons relationships. Outrage that paints dehumanizing words on placards and in memes. Ā
Awhile ago, I was wondering what Jewish people did with the violent God portrayed in the Old Testament. One day, right there in the bookshelves at Barnes and Noble, I pulled out Not in Godās Name by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi in England. I felt like God answered my question as I walked through the stacks. Sacks offers three moves a people makes toward genocide.
He says, āPathological dualism does three things. It makes you dehumanize and demonize your enemies. It leads you to see yourself as a victim. And it allows you to commit altruistic evil, killing in the name of the God of life, hating in the name of the God of love, and practicing cruelty in the name of the God of compassionā6. Only instead of the name of the God of love, this dehumanization is being practiced in the name of ātolerance.ā
Sacks says, āThe first stage is dehumanization. This is the prelude to genocide. The paradox in the phrase ācrimes against humanityā is that the great crimes are committed against those you do no see as sharing your humanity. To the Hutus, the Tutsis were inyenzi, cockroaches…ā7 (57). Republicans are called Nazis, fascists, racists, white supremacists, magats.
āThe second stage is establishing victimhood. Just as it is necessary to rob your enemies of their humanity, so you have to find a way of relinquishing responsibility for the evil you are about to commit. You must define yourself as a victim. It follows that you, in committing murder, even genocide, are merely acting in self-defense.ā 8 For instance, Luigi Mangione justified killing Brian Thompson because of how insurance companies treat people unfairly.
āWhen dehumanization and demonization are combined with a sense of victimhood, the third stage becomes possible the commission of evil in the altruistic cause.ā9 The young man who attempted to assassinate Trump claimed he was doing a good thing. He says, āAnd I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.ā10
I fear we have sidled very close to that last move, the commission of evil in the altruistic cause. As I said earlier: Death to Trump supporters on a sign is a short step, to picking up a weapon. I fear either side could blow, the aforementioned civil war coming to no good end. Iāve been reading Joe Jacksonās Splendid Liberators about the Spanish American war. The Cuban and Philippino revolts against the Spanish rule lead to death and starvation for ordinary people. And left both countries open to brutal American intervention. (I havenāt gotten to that part yet.)
The only ways I know to combat this is to identify my own resentments, put them away, and reach for the common ground. Iāve said often that our friendship is more important than our political opinions.Ā We need to resist the powers that are jerking us around. Iāve resented how non citizens are awarded free health care, free housing etc when citizens have been denied those benefits. Well, I am putting that away because that disparity is a tool to build outrage. I want no part of it. People, whether citizens or not, are next to the eucharist the most holy thing I will encounter, made in the image of God.
In a recent report in Newsweek the authors talked about how our values have become inverted. A famine is reported in Gaza for instance but that famine turns out to be inaccurate, but the retraction is too late. People are already running with protests against genocide. Instead of the in group being hyper nationalists who love their country, itās the opposite, people joined together because of their hatred. This is manipulated by the CCP.
At their worst, they have learned that accusations generate attentionācorrections do not. When the United Nations declares famine, governments mobilize and courts take notice. When that declaration later turns out to rest on bad data and buried evidence, no correction follows. The damage is done. The funding has already moved.
The second force operates at the street level, where organized protest ecosystems amplify the accusations that institutional bodies generate.Ā Documented researchĀ has traced how the Singham network, a global infrastructure with documented financial ties to Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated entities, directed funds and narratives into American activist organizations. The protest activity that followed was, in significant part, engineered.
The institution names the violation. The protest ecosystem amplifies it. The accused defends itself. And the regime actually responsible recedes from scrutiny.11
We are being jerked around. Maybe the real revolution is to resist the outrage, resist hating our neighbor, hating the undocumented immigrant, hating the Jewish person, the black person, the Islamic person, the man or woman you canāt stand. Maybe we should value our culture, even though weāve done stupid and cruel things because we have the sense to reflect on those. We also aspire to freedom of speech and religion and protest and the press. Stripping the clothing that is our culture just leaves us naked and vulnerable and angry. This wreck of a system that is working is better than no system at all.
Beautiful afternoon walk with the dogs. Soft sunlight with cloud shadows. Green grass. Freshly tilled ground. The weed killer settled and not in my breath which reminds me of the New Testament reading from this morning.
āFor the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.ā12
Did you hear that? With the breath of his mouth, the Lord Jesus will kill the lawless one. The breath that breathed life into Adam, the breath that said āLet there be and there was, the breath that breathed āmy God my God why have you forsaken me, father forgive them, into your hand I commit my spirit, today you will be with me in paradise, it is finished.ā The work is finished. That breath. The breath that breathed on the frightened disciples when Jesus showed up alive. The breath that poured out on Pentecost, so lively, people heard the good new in their own language.
And to the guy in the ratty turquoise truck, our roadside is not your personal trash can. Were you trying to provoke me to shake my finger at you? Iām not stupid and not up for road rage against me and my dogs. Bruce says heās a neighbor. Sigh.
If my words have filled you with outrage, with what about, with how could she support Trump, well maybe take a look, maybe walk down the road to pick up the bag with a Caseyās sandwich box and empty water bottle, and put it in a proper trash can.
References
1 Odette Yousef. āShooting suspect’s online presence belies claims of ‘radicalism’ā. April 27, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/04/27/nx-s1-5800212/alleged-assassins-online-presence-belies-claims-of-radicalism
2 Katie Andraski. āDoomscrolling.ā WNIJ. May 5, 2026. https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wnij-perspectives/2026-05-05/perspective-doomscrolling
3 Kevin Schmidt, State Representative District 114. āPritzkerās dangerous rhetoric aimed at Trump heats up as IL Governor dips toes in presidential waters.ā https://repschmidt.com/2025/05/01/pritzkers-dangerous-rhetoric-aimed-at-trump-heats-up-as-il-governor-dips-toes-in-presidential-waters/#:~:text=The%202028%20Presidential%20election%20is,Governor%20JB%20Pritzker%20is%20behaving.
4 Beckett Adams in āPolitical Violence Whataboutism Has Gotten out of controlā https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/05/the-political-violence-whataboutism-has-gotten-out-of- control/
5 Ben Sasse. Them. St Martinās. 2018. p. 111
6 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Not in Godās Name. Schocken. 2025. p. 54.
7 Ibid. p. 57
8 Ibid p. 59
9 Ibid. p. 62
10 Stephen Nelson, Chris Nesi. āRead White House Correspondentsā Dinner suspect Cole Allenās full anti-Trump manifesto.ā New York Post. April 26, 2026. https://nypost.com/2026/04/26/us-news/read-whcd-gunman-cole-allens-full-anti-trump-manifesto/
11 Joel Finkelstein, Shawn Chenoweth, and Judea Pearl. The Moral Mob And the Human Rights Industrial Complex. Newsweek. April 30, 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/the-moral-mob-and-the-human-rights-industrial-complex-opinion-11882578?fbclid=IwZnRzaARloLRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeCbTRqu9eJFIdyd7_JGM84bQONE76n1YjmJvsM872pIETyIKlX-EX-Clv20g_aem_m3h5ZvCu4-bOLiFperTbHg
12 2 Thessalonians 2: 7 ā 8, ESV
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