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Where are you from?” the stranger asked. “Florida?”
“Close, New York,” the other person replied with a smile.
“Oh, so you’re one of those,” the stranger said, with emphasis.
“One of what?” the other person asked, no longer smiling.
“About 75 percent of New Yorkers are Democrats,” the stranger said. “Is that what you are? We like to know who we’re dealing with around here.”
“Isn’t the fact that we’re both Americans and human beings enough?” the other person asked, now defensive and wondering if they picked the right place to retire.
That’s an excellent question, because it used be enough. We used to respect the people who held elected office, even if we disagreed with their policies. We used to respect our neighbors, even those who voted for the other side. The chair of the Cherokee County Republican Party used to go hunting with some of the biggest Democrats in town – and without fear of a Dick Cheney-type incident.
The incident described above is a composite of stories I’ve heard from people who love this area and couldn’t wait to make it their home – only for silly things like this to knock the air out of them.
I thought about incidents like that Saturday when I learned that former President Donald Trump had been shot, and one of his supporters killed, during a rally in Pennsylvania. I thought about how poorly many people treat each other on social media. And I thought about the pathetic partisans who leave threatening voicemails to U.S. senators – or even threatening notes in the door of Cherokee County commissioners.
The shooter, who I am not naming to avoid giving him any more notoriety, was a 20-year-old, bespectacled, nerdy white kid who graduated from high school in 2022, earned an associate’s degree in 2024 and brought an AR-15-style rifle, and more, to the Trump rally. Some of his classmates said they saw no red flags that would lead them to believe he was capable of committing such a violent act.
We are living in a tragic era of political violence. Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot in 2011. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot in 2017. A total of 13 people have been arrested in an elaborate scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. And then there’s the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and some other political flamethrowers blamed the national media, with Green saying they have “demonized” Trump. Yet, she has claimed that Democrats are literally controlled by demons, and just before she was elected Greene advocated for the execution of several prominent Democratic politicians. Hypocrisy has never been a virtue.
She’s not alone. On June 30, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor, said during a talk at Lake Church in White Lake, “Some folks need killing … It’s a matter of necessity!” The fact that he said that to a room full of people who worship the Prince of Peace is shocking.
While the rhetoric on the right flank has been more inflammatory, the left isn’t innocent, either. On the night of Trump’s shooting, U.S. Rep. Steven Woodrow (D-Colo.), posted online, “The last thing America needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are,” before deleting it and apologizing.
Let me make this as clear as possible: Political violence is not acceptable under any conditions. However, as long as we continue to talk like this about our neighbors – whom God commanded us to love in the very same book some politicians are trying to get taught in schools – violent actions will result.
When we judge people as something less than an equal human being, we lower them to something we can easily dismiss without conscience nor consequence. If you are playing a part in promoting and escalating violent rhetoric against anyone, you may not have fired the shot, but you did help load the weapon.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 828-837-5122; email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com; or on X @daviddBstroh.