A Wake-Up Call We Can't Keep Snoozing

Originally published on Substack. Shared here for broader access.

Yesterday, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, another American protester was killed—this time by a federal CBP officer.

That fact alone deserves more than a reflexive response.

Not because it fits neatly into anyone’s partisan narrative—but because it doesn’t. And because the speed with which so many rushed to excuse, justify, minimize, or weaponize a human death tells us something deeply unsettling about where we are as a country.

America is confronting an uncomfortable reality—one we must face honestly if we have any hope of pulling back from the brink:

The deepest divide in this country is no longer red vs. blue.
It is between those who are willing—even eager—for chaos, disdain, and distrust to become the norm…
and those who still believe in calm, civility, trust, and civic renewal rooted in shared rules and predictable norms.

And make no mistake: there are loud, energized factions on both the right and the left that now thrive on the chaos.

When Power Replaces Principle

One of the most dangerous shifts I see today is how easily moral clarity evaporates once “our side” has power.

Liberty—real liberty—used to be a principle.
Now it’s often just a talking point.

Many who rightly screamed about government overreach during COVID—lockdowns, mandates, restrictions on movement and livelihood—are now cheering as the state tramples core constitutional protections. First. Second. Fourth. Take your pick.

Merely being armed—legally, with a permit—does not constitute a threat warranting execution in the street. That used to be a near-universal understanding. Apparently, it no longer is.

What makes this moment especially painful for me is watching people I once respected abandon those principles.

Yesterday, following the killing of Alex Pretti, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem gave a public account of events that was, at best, deeply misleading—and at worst, outright false.

The gaslighting was so thorough that any anti-Second Amendment advocate would have applauded it.

This isn’t about party.
It’s about truth, restraint, and moral consistency.

Extremes Feeding Extremes

The most vocal elements of today’s “right” now bear little resemblance to traditional conservative principles like limited government, personal accountability, or individual sovereignty. They blame every fire on the left—while pouring gasoline of their own.

Meanwhile, the most vocal elements of the “left,” after years of tolerating or excusing political violence, lawfare, court packing, and disorder—from Antifa street chaos to soft-on-crime policies—point exclusively to the right as the source of all instability.

Both narratives are convenient.
Both are incomplete.
And both are corrosive.

What’s been quietly lost is moral capital—among elected officials, influencers, media figures, and movement leaders across the spectrum. Their silence when restraint is needed—or worse, their active fanning of flames—has hollowed out public trust.

History Is Trying to Warn Us

History doesn’t shout. It whispers—until it screams.

Colombia’s period of La Violencia didn’t begin with genocide. It began with moral sorting, tribal loyalty, and the normalization of political violence as “necessary.”

Northern Ireland’s Troubles didn’t start with bombs. They started when neighbors stopped seeing one another as neighbors—and started seeing one another only as symbols.

Those societies didn’t fall apart overnight.
They slid—slowly—because enough people decided that winning mattered more than coexistence.

We are not immune.

The Silent Majority Has a Choice

There is still a large, quiet majority of Americans who do not want this future.

People who want their disagreements handled with words, not weapons.
People who understand that today’s abuse of power will become tomorrow’s precedent.
People who know that when norms collapse, everyone eventually pays the price.

But silence is no longer neutral.

If we leave this moment unanswered—if we keep outsourcing moral courage to extremists and algorithms—nothing gets better. Not policing. Not public safety. Not liberty. Not justice.

This is not us vs. them.

It is order vs. chaos.
Human dignity vs. humiliation and tribal rage.
Courage vs. cowardice disguised as certainty.

A Call for Courageous Citizenship

At Braver Angels , we talk about making courageous citizenship the honored norm—not the exception.

That means:

Defending civil liberties even when it’s inconvenient

Demanding restraint even when we’re angry

Refusing to dehumanize even when we feel justified

Choosing dialogue over dopamine

It means remembering that democracy is not self-executing. It requires character. It requires humility. It requires us—We the People—to show up differently.

This is the wake-up call.

Not a lecture.
Not a threat.
A plea.

Let’s choose calm over chaos.
Truth over tribalism.
Civic renewal over civic decay.

Before history stops whispering.

Author’s Note:
The views and reflections expressed in this essay are my own, shaped by recent events and my personal assessment of them. They are offered in a spirit of civic concern and do not necessarily reflect the positions, statements, or interpretations of any organization with which I am affiliated, now or in the past.