Rhetoric Without Responsibility

Have you ever seen or experienced one of those moments when you hear an utterance that makes you cringe? Like that time in church when the soloist was so off-key that it quenched the Spirit and made the congregation break out in empathy-sweat. “Ol’ boy was operatin’ outside his gifts!” as the saying goes.

Sometimes folks get way outside their gifts, saying or doing more than they should. This has a way of robbing the moment of its expected impact. Politicians participate in such verbal buffoonery all the time.

But then there’s the ones that know exactly what they’re doing. Things are said from a platform of leadership with the full intent of causing harm, demeaning others, or placing people in difficult situations. Elected officials have a responsibility to lead and govern, but too often become mere bullies, shouting incredibly inflammatory and sometimes evil words. When that happens, they shift from well-meaning, opinionated leaders to mere grifters and charlatans, enjoying rhetoric without responsibility. They say anything and everything, then walk away from the podium pretending they don’t own the results of their words.

“Rhetoric” is the ability to shout whatever you want from the podium – the inflammatory podcast interview, the scream at a town hall – without care or concern for what it will cause or do.

I submit that the hateful rhetoric we are seeing from the left is one of the sources of issues that recently inflamed deranged lunatics to shoot up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in Dallas and Alvarado, Texas. Innocent people were killed and wounded. For the first time we have seen indictments handed down for domestic terror crimes by Antifa members. But let us not forget the irresponsible rhetoric that shaped the environment and empowered the shooters. It’s rhetoric without responsibility.

Self-entitled members of left-wing politics are inflaming the unstable and easily manipulated members of their progressive base, resulting in a wave of violent leftist reaction. This must stop. Hate-baiters must cool their words. The constant demonization of law enforcement is not only unwelcome, it is dangerous.

Riots, demonstrations, bricks and rocks thrown at ICE agents, apps generated to dox and disclose the whereabouts of ICE operations – such violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It is all the result of an environment of violent activism generated in part by rhetoric that calls for it. The evidence is everywhere.

Uber-liberal California Gov. Gavin Newsom ranted on Stephen Colbert’s show, claiming that ICE “authoritarians” are targeting “black and brown communities.” “Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars, people disappearing, no due process, no oversight, zero accountability,” Newsom said without mussing his perfectly coifed hair. “This can’t be normalized. None of this can be normalized.” The next morning brought the shooting at the Dallas ICE facility.

Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who’s never led a thing in his life, called “law enforcement a 'sickness” and set up “ICE-free zones,” also signing an executive order promoting protests. Violent crowds surged to Chicago-based ICE facilities. Criminal organizations have now placed bounties on the heads of Chicago ICE agents.

Democratic Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell doxxed ICE agents and is now under federal investigation. Barista-turned-U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently called ICE a “rogue agency that should not exist,” going so far as to claim that funding ICE would result in an “ICE explosion” and “barbarism.”

The list of rhetoric generators is extensive:

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): Called for people to “fight” Trump’s agenda “in the streets” in January 2025.

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: Referred to ICE agents as "Trump's modern-day Gestapo" in May 2025.

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.): Shouted to a crowd in September 2025, "That's the SS and the Gestapo," regarding masked ICE agents.

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.): Compared ICE raids to the Gestapo, claiming to “fight… today’s Nazis.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY): Called ICE the “secret police” in June 2025. 

In the wake of constant inflammatory rhetoric against the men and women of ICE, there has been a 1000% increase in attacks against ICE officers. Trump border Czar Tom Homan recently called it out, saying, “[I]f the hateful rhetoric continues, there will be bloodshed, people are going to die.”

Suffice it to say, the Democrats in elected office right now are out of control. They have chosen to demonize good men and women in law enforcement, particularly those with ICE. Such irresponsible rhetoric is getting people killed.

It is ironic and somewhat twisted that the good men and women of ICE are also enduring this vitriol and violence without pay, since the same soulless harpies who rant about them are also responsible for shutting down the government.

Mayors, school board members, state officials, congressmen, and others who operate their gifts are evident everywhere. But some choose to use their positions as bullies, fomenting discord and creating an environment of violence and mayhem. Such rhetoric is contrary to who we are as a nation and does nothing to “establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility.”

We must pay attention. Rhetoric without responsibility is dangerous … just ask ICE.