Thirty-five years in politics has taught me something: the binary choice which dominates the headlines at a given moment is often not the real issue at all.
Often the real danger comes less from which side of the argument we choose — but that we accept the argument as someone else has framed it in the first place.
America and its democratic allies cannot be conquered by external armies, as the Soviets learned the hard way during the Cold War. They concluded that our greatest vulnerability was not military but internal — our capacity to turn on one another. Their answer was to inflame division from within.
Today, Russia, China, and Iran have taken that strategy to a new level. Social media has given them a powerful new weapon: direct access to the American people. Propaganda now bypasses traditional media entirely, landing in our feeds in real time. And too often, it’s working. Algorithms are carefully designed to amplify outrage and extremism, foreign troll farms stoke our worst divisions, and too many of our fellow citizens retreat deeper into polarized camps.
The central question is whether we will wake up to this in time — or whether we will allow ourselves to be manipulated into hating each other to violent extremes while our adversaries laugh and advance their agendas. An America engaged in political violence is not an America prepared to deal with China’s aggression in the South China Sea, Russia’s wars to rebuild its empires, or Iran’s worldwide mischief.
The great contest of this moment is not left versus right. It is decent versus indecent.
Decent people can disagree passionately about the size of government, the proper tax rate, foreign policy, or education reform — and still keep the republic intact. With one notable exception, we’ve done it for most of two centuries. But when violence and intimidation enter the picture, the entire system is put at risk.
Our nation’s greatest firewall against foreign manipulation toward violence, the type that is pouring in to our feeds daily, are the decent. Those who with grace or not, refuse to engage in violence, intimidation, or threats. The decent people of this country are our great line of defense in today’s 21st century information warfare. Try as our adversaries may with incitement and raw appeals to tribalism and primal instincts, the good and decent people of our country do not take the bait. Their quiet, steady adherence to a higher principle protects our nation from the domestic chaos our adversaries attempt to sow.
Indecency knows no ideology, and it is not the exclusive property of one philosophical team. The indecent are those who resort to violence to impose their will or create permission structures for others to do so — and they are the true threat to a free society. They twist philosophy to serve their violent impulses.
We have seen the proof:
- In 2011, Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a constituent event for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, killing six and nearly killing her.
- In 2017, James Hodgkinson opened fire on Republican members of Congress during baseball practice, nearly killing Rep. Steve Scalise and wounding several others.
- In 2022, David DePape broke into the home of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and brutally attacked her husband Paul with a hammer.
- In 2023, Craig Robertson, a Utah man, threatened to assassinate President Biden and was killed in an FBI raid after refusing to surrender.
- In 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate President Trump at a campaign rally in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, grazing the president’s ear and killing an innocent bystander.
- In 2025, Vance Luther Boelter murdered Minnesota’s former Democratic Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their own home, and wounded state Senator John Hoffman and his wife.
Not one of these attackers are “my team,” no matter their philosophy or target. Their violence disqualifies them from being part of any legitimate political movement. Political violence is not clever, it is not justice, and it is not “payback.” It is an attack on the very foundation of democratic self-government.
In fact, the politically violent are the losers of the debate in the public square. Each act of violence is an admission, “I can’t convince anyone I’m right.”
America’s enemies are paying close attention. Autocrats in Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran hope we stay locked in tribal warfare, too distracted and divided to interfere with their aggression. Every time we turn up the heat on our own fellow Americans, they win a little more breathing room. Each day, these countries are spending millions to steer Americans into this literal dead end.
I am a conservative because I believe our ideas offer the best path to prosperity and human dignity. Yet it is the first obligation of decent people to preserve a society where we can debate those ideas without fear of being shot, silenced, or assaulted.
My parents grew up in Germany during Nazis times. While my mother was too young to remember, my father told me countless stories about the daily intimidation of the Nazis. For them, the mere threat of violence was often enough to silence opposition and strangle a society.
The decisive struggle of this moment is whether decency or indecency governs the public square. If those willing to respect the rules of democracy do not defeat those who justify and rationalize violence, we will lose far more than just a policy fight.
Each of us must make a choice, and it is not the option which gets amplified the most by social media algorithms, which will always reward more vitriol toward our fellow Americans. Social media platforms have monetized, and created their own incentives to maximize, the outrage of one American against another.
It’s time to stop being “followers,” and instead be leaders – genuine leaders – in preserving our nation and society. This choice doesn’t get the clicks and likes – but it is what is right.
Ron Nehring is a former Chairman of the California Republican Party