A 69-year-old Army veteran named Kerry Sheron is lying in a hospital bed in Escondido, California, with "no hope" of recovery after being savagely beaten outside his own home — a home decorated with Trump flags — by his 32-year-old neighbor, Thomas Caleb Butler. His wife says there's no coming back from this. A Good Samaritan who tried to intervene was also injured.
But sure, tell me again how it's our rhetoric that's dangerous.
The attack happened on May 21, and here's the part that should make your blood boil: this wasn't out of nowhere. Sheron's home — affectionately known as the "Trump House" — had already been targeted just 11 weeks ago when his signs were attacked. He kept them up anyway, because that's what veterans do. They don't surrender ground to bullies. Thomas Caleb Butler now faces attempted murder charges, which is the absolute minimum considering a man is dying because he had the audacity to fly a flag supporting the President of the United States.
Remember when the left invented the term "stochastic terrorism"? They spent years — years — applying it to anyone right of center who dared speak with conviction. Tucker Carlson was a "stochastic terrorist." Trump rallies were "stochastic terrorism." Your uncle's Facebook posts were "stochastic terrorism."
Funny how quiet they get when the terrorism stops being stochastic and starts being, you know, actual.
Let's connect the dots that every mainstream newsroom will pretend don't exist. For the better part of a decade, the Democratic Party, its media apparatus, and its celebrity cheerleaders have called Trump supporters Nazis, fascists, white supremacists, and an existential threat to democracy. Joe Biden stood in front of that blood-red backdrop and essentially declared half the country enemies of the state. Kamala Harris compared ICE to the KKK. Every late-night host, every MSNBC anchor, every blue-check activist reinforced the same message: these people aren't just wrong, they're dangerous.
So what happens when you spend a decade telling unstable people that their neighbor is a Nazi?
A 32-year-old beats a 69-year-old veteran nearly to death in his own front yard. That's what happens.
As reported by RedState, Kerry Sheron's wife has said there is "no hope" for his recovery. Let that sink in. A man who served his country, who came home and exercised his First Amendment rights by decorating his property with flags supporting the duly elected President, is now effectively gone — because the left's dehumanization campaign found a willing set of fists.
And where are the vigils? Where are the trending hashtags? Where's the CNN town hall about political violence? Where's the prime-time special?
Nowhere. Crickets.
Because the victim had Trump flags, so he doesn't count. He's not the right kind of victim. The media's empathy machine has a very specific filter, and "Army veteran who supports the wrong candidate" doesn't make it through.
Thomas Caleb Butler will face his day in court, and attempted murder charges are a start. But the people who wound the clock — the politicians, the pundits, the professors who spent years painting every MAGA hat as a Klan hood — they'll never face a single consequence.
They never do.
Kerry Sheron served this country so people like Thomas Caleb Butler could live in freedom. Butler repaid him by trying to beat him to death for exercising it. If that doesn't tell you everything about where we are as a nation, nothing will.
