Hate has no home here.... unless you hate Trump... is how the lawn signs always looked to me, even before I left the left--smug and hypocritical. First seed of doubt. Now the entire sign reads like a farce. And plenty of sign owners from the kindness-is-everything crew wishes the aim was inches more accurate.
Well, the fact that while you were on the left you saw through those signs, that seeds were planted which bore fruit, leaves me with hope others on the left who oppose Trump will be jarred awake by the violence of this weekend, and like you did, begin rethinking their posture and understanding of the political landscape. Pray God...
Looking at this situation from Australia, I see profound sadness in the turmoil unfolding in America, which unfortunately also impacts our society here. There are multiple layers of tragedy at play. Firstly, the attempted assassination of a politician amidst a highly charged election cycle. Secondly, the tragic loss of a father, husband, and valued community member. Thirdly, the lives forever altered by injuries sustained in the gunfire, with uncertain implications for their livelihoods and futures.
Equally distressing is the radicalization of a young man driven to violence by societal divisions, resulting in his own premature death and causing immense suffering for his family. The escalating media sensationalism and societal polarization are contributing factors that cannot be ignored. The reality hits hard—this could have been anyone’s loved one affected by such senseless violence, witnessed firsthand or online, leaving lasting trauma.
It didn’t used to be like this. Elections were simply about choosing leaders, not existential crises or the end of the world as we know it. We must find a way back to that simplicity, but how?
I do long for those old days when politics did not saturate our lives, and violence was not viewed by so many as inevitable. These are distressing times, indeed. Our ability to communicate instantly around the globe has brought so many blessings, yet it also makes others' arguments and upsets that much more present in our awareness. May we see an awakening to peaceful consciousness form in response.
Thank you Leah for another good essay. I have always felt zealous anger at those signs because of the clear implication that in other homes hate IS welcomed. And the irony of that, and hypocrisy.
I like how you said that virtue is hate’s most cunning disguise. That sums up the current problem well, and it makes me long for childhood where I imagined the bad guy was the same guy for everyone.
I will never get used to having friends and family seeing a wolf where I see a grandmother and Visa Versa. If we could acknowledge the line running through each person then we could talk about these things and perhaps be in reality together.
My first thought after this happened was, maybe some people will recall Trump’s humanity and also the humanity of those who follow him, and that could open up communication. Then I told myself to not be so naive.
"makes me long for childhood where I imagined the bad guy was the same guy for everyone."
Whew, does that hit home; I love how you articulated it.
And I, too, have always felt disturbed by the passive aggressiveness of those signs — the implied spiritual judgment that hate IS welcomed in other homes (ie. those in which Trump voters live). One might call such an implication hateful.
I'm still holding out hope that the events of the weekend might shake up enough people that communication across the political divide can develop. It may be naive, but I can't believe the majority of anti-Trump voters will be open to violence as the path to resolution. Oy.
Few things have ever made made my blood boil as much as those signs, which read to me as an unvarnished accusation of their neighbors of hate, based on disagreements that they have probably never sat down to charitably discuss with their neighbors. I'm then forced to reflect that I'm doing the same thing to them by judging them for their sign, which probably means something different to them than it means to me, and I'm not bothering to discuss it with them.
Anyone who views a failed assassination as a "missed opportunity" is not thinking clearly, or has no conception of what it would do to our society if it had succeeded; has no conception of what such evil acts do to the moral and spiritual fiber of a country.
I do believe that Donald Trump poses a unique existential risk to the continuation of the republic as we know it. But the continuation of the republic as we know it is only worth preserving if the lawful means that that republic provides for selecting and restraining leaders is sufficient -- and the wisdom of the voting citizenry is sufficient -- to avoid the threat. If it's not, then there's nothing to protect in the first place. And if we're uncertain, then better to wait it out and see if our republic is sufficient or not.
The signs struck me as annoying, to the extent they smacked of a blanket judgment on the hearts of Trump voters. But they also caused me to wonder exactly what their message meant to the person who bothered to acquire and display one. My guess is there was a spectrum of motives/thinking. Because I personally know lovely people who had them in their yards, so I could only assume that whatever inspired them, it was not their purpose to spiritually judge their Trump-voting neighbors (to the extent they were aware they had any). At the same time, given the popularity on the left of the "deplorables" rhetoric at the time, it seems pretty certain that some subset of people were choosing those signs as a righteous rebuke to the deplorable willingness of Republicans to line up behind Trump. In which case, the irony of their sign's message was cringe-worthy. But I agree: presuming any particular sign owner was motivated by contempt is itself a judgment that its not our business to make.
One of these days I'd really like to sit down and hear more from you re: your concerns about Trump as an existential threat. I do not like his personality or his leadership — his energy (which is how I tend to assess people) seems profoundly ungrounded, chaotic — so I'm not a fan. Yet I don't perceive the existential angle. To me, the flagrant failure of the current administration to uphold their basic oaths of office re: protecting our borders and our 1A rights, as well as their attachment to the globalist corporatist agenda over the will of the citizenry has me feeling strongly that *they* are the existential threat to America continuing as a sovereign nation; they are all in with the crowd who wants to end nation-states and have a global government run by elites. No thanks. I prefer good ol' America with secured borders and liberties. Hopefully someday soon we'll find a chance to have that discussion.
Sure, happy to discuss it. I'm planning to write something up at some point and maybe post it. On the balance of policy issues I would certainly prefer most the policies that Trump aligns with. But the threat comes from what I perceive is his unwillingness to allow his own personal power to be constrained by law, the Constitution, democratic or republican principles of limited power or any other constraint. Barring that the only constraints are the constraints that come from others in office, but he now was complete control of the Republican Party. His actions from November 2020 to January 2021 confirmed my worst fears of what might follow as a result from what I perceived about his character in 2016. My fears about a trump presidency are less about what would happen from 2025 to 2028, and more about what's going to happen in 2029 and if the electorate will get to choose who leads then, and what follows from that.
Well, if you tried to discuss it with them, they would exile you to Hate Land. I tried to clarify some parts of the demonized Project 2025, and became the butt of such vicious, low IQ vitriol, I lost all hope. I wasn't even saying that I agree with it; I was simply saying that no, conservatives do NOT want to "Make Women Property Again," (as if they ever were?)
So you chose an interesting symbol to make a very powerful spiritual point (one I agree with) but it has an undertone that anyone who put up (and maybe still has those signs up in their yard) might be hypocritical, a claim I don’t think you wanted to make. I recall that those signs went up eight years ago in response to Trump’s hateful rhetoric- he attacked disabled people (even vets), he attacked women, he attacked immigrants, he belittled other Republican candidates who believed in compromise as part of the political process, and it has continued for eight years, to the point that now anyone who is a Democrat and opposes his rhetoric or political positions is labeled a “traitor.” Words matter. (And I think most of my conservative friends opposed his rhetoric as much as I did, but once he became the candidate, just like today, they are stuck with him.) I believe the doctrines teach us that we should look for the good in everyone, but we can and should oppose (even “hate”) the evil. To me that’s what those signs represented, people opposing the hateful rhetoric, and we can continue to oppose hateful words and of course hateful actions. In the end everyone who cares about the good of the country and our neighbors is thinking the same thing Leah – we all have to turn down the heat, look for the good in each other and find the common ground in the country. Thanks for posting and keeping the dialogue civil and spiritual.
Thanks for your comment, Dan. I appreciate the thoughtful challenge you bring.
I chose to mention the signs in part because they have always been a source of curiosity to me (as well as annoyance, not gonna lie). I have long assumed that many people who displayed them had in their hearts exactly what you said: the desire to show a stand against hateful rhetoric, to say "Not Okay" to it. Yet, I think that basic (reasonable) message was quickly skewed by the fact that the signs also read as "A Hillary Voter Lives Here" and so they mostly served as a partisan symbol delineating Us versus Them, meaning, We Who Care About Others versus Deplorables Who Don't.
The inescapable implication of saying "hate has no home here" is the suggestion that it does have a home with others, and in a polarized political landscape, it's hard to fault people for perceiving an insult, a judgment, whether one was directly intended or not. As I said in my comment to Erik, I don't think it's my business to worry about what any particular sign owner meant — as you said, we should assume the best.
But given that the signs symbolized both an accusation and a stand against Trump, I'd argue it's not unreasonable to wonder how those who went so far as to openly display their objection to him reacted to Saturday's news. I spent a little time that evening on Twitter (IKR?) and I found two things quite alarming: 1) the numbers of people who are so deranged by their antipathy for Trump that they went on record as angry or sad that the shooter missed; 2) the overall tone on the right that was spoiling for a fight, ready to take the battle to the enemy. Yikes and Yikes!! (I know Twitter does not represent all of society, but it’s where a lot of our political discourse emerges and takes shape, and it’s where many people will say what they think, hiding behind a screen. So it’s not meaningless in gauging our political landscape.)
As I said in my essay, I am guessing many — hopefully most — sign owners are not so opposed as to wish Trump taken out by a shooter, but the antipathy and rage out there swirling around this one candidate from every direction is seriously concerning, seriously deranging and destabilizing. Turning down the heat is a must, but I think it’s fair to note that the constant drumbeat of Trump = Hitler 2.0 from the left media and Biden wing of the party has surely helped set the stage for this level of ugliness. The hateful, deplorable rhetoric is not all on Trump by a long shot, and he didn’t invent it either (as any student of America’s political history knows).
So yes, absolutely — look for the good in each other and find the common ground in the country. That's the best possible advice. It's also the ethos of the guy I'm voting for, because he lives the creed and leads by example. 🇺🇸🙌🏻RFK all the way!🙌🏻🇺🇸
Ah Leah....I have only now just read this post as I lost it among other "important" stuff :)
Such a great commentary, and the comments from readers were excellent as well. I have a very liberal relative and her friend coming for a visit here to our cabin for the Labor Day Weekend, and I hate to say it, but I am fearful of any politics coming up. They are both nuns who are involved in all sorts of liberal politics in Illinois and across the nation. I recently sent a post to another liberal relative regarding the DNC machinations with RFK Jr., Cornell West and Jill Stein as well as the emergence of Kamala as the next great hope of the world (after Obama.). To his credit, he did listen to the podcast but said he would probably disagree with Kamala on some things but could never bring himself to vote for Trump because of his immorality, hubris and dishonesty. I was at a loss at that point as I wasn't going to go tit for tat on this, so I moved on to other topics in our email communication. We are at a stage here, where the hatred....per your article....of Trump is beyond common sense and logic, and no matter what we learn, it won't matter for their vote. And good people - like RFK Jr. - are not even given air time by the press and the establishment - and so we are left with two bad choices. However, the Trump choice is, by my reckoning (to use your phrase) the more sane of the two, no matter the personality. The lawn signs have been a constant irritation to me, precisely because of what I perceive as their virtue signaling. And we conservatives are perceived to be ignorant and wanting to take the nation back to the dark ages. Sad that love of the constitution, the rule of law, the unborn, free speech, educational opportunities for all, merit v. identity, protection of young people's bodies, the right to defend ourselves, and freedom from government are considered "deplorable." Keep up the good work! Peace and love to you and all here. Ellen
I love to hear this blog post resonated. And I admire your friend openness—and your courage to have such a potentially difficult conversation. It’s a beautiful thing to have such friendships in our lives.
Hate has no home here.... unless you hate Trump... is how the lawn signs always looked to me, even before I left the left--smug and hypocritical. First seed of doubt. Now the entire sign reads like a farce. And plenty of sign owners from the kindness-is-everything crew wishes the aim was inches more accurate.
Well, the fact that while you were on the left you saw through those signs, that seeds were planted which bore fruit, leaves me with hope others on the left who oppose Trump will be jarred awake by the violence of this weekend, and like you did, begin rethinking their posture and understanding of the political landscape. Pray God...
I have the same prayer! 🙏🏼
Looking at this situation from Australia, I see profound sadness in the turmoil unfolding in America, which unfortunately also impacts our society here. There are multiple layers of tragedy at play. Firstly, the attempted assassination of a politician amidst a highly charged election cycle. Secondly, the tragic loss of a father, husband, and valued community member. Thirdly, the lives forever altered by injuries sustained in the gunfire, with uncertain implications for their livelihoods and futures.
Equally distressing is the radicalization of a young man driven to violence by societal divisions, resulting in his own premature death and causing immense suffering for his family. The escalating media sensationalism and societal polarization are contributing factors that cannot be ignored. The reality hits hard—this could have been anyone’s loved one affected by such senseless violence, witnessed firsthand or online, leaving lasting trauma.
It didn’t used to be like this. Elections were simply about choosing leaders, not existential crises or the end of the world as we know it. We must find a way back to that simplicity, but how?
I do long for those old days when politics did not saturate our lives, and violence was not viewed by so many as inevitable. These are distressing times, indeed. Our ability to communicate instantly around the globe has brought so many blessings, yet it also makes others' arguments and upsets that much more present in our awareness. May we see an awakening to peaceful consciousness form in response.
Thank you Leah for another good essay. I have always felt zealous anger at those signs because of the clear implication that in other homes hate IS welcomed. And the irony of that, and hypocrisy.
I like how you said that virtue is hate’s most cunning disguise. That sums up the current problem well, and it makes me long for childhood where I imagined the bad guy was the same guy for everyone.
I will never get used to having friends and family seeing a wolf where I see a grandmother and Visa Versa. If we could acknowledge the line running through each person then we could talk about these things and perhaps be in reality together.
My first thought after this happened was, maybe some people will recall Trump’s humanity and also the humanity of those who follow him, and that could open up communication. Then I told myself to not be so naive.
"makes me long for childhood where I imagined the bad guy was the same guy for everyone."
Whew, does that hit home; I love how you articulated it.
And I, too, have always felt disturbed by the passive aggressiveness of those signs — the implied spiritual judgment that hate IS welcomed in other homes (ie. those in which Trump voters live). One might call such an implication hateful.
I'm still holding out hope that the events of the weekend might shake up enough people that communication across the political divide can develop. It may be naive, but I can't believe the majority of anti-Trump voters will be open to violence as the path to resolution. Oy.
This is perfection.
🙏🏻❤️😊
Few things have ever made made my blood boil as much as those signs, which read to me as an unvarnished accusation of their neighbors of hate, based on disagreements that they have probably never sat down to charitably discuss with their neighbors. I'm then forced to reflect that I'm doing the same thing to them by judging them for their sign, which probably means something different to them than it means to me, and I'm not bothering to discuss it with them.
Anyone who views a failed assassination as a "missed opportunity" is not thinking clearly, or has no conception of what it would do to our society if it had succeeded; has no conception of what such evil acts do to the moral and spiritual fiber of a country.
I do believe that Donald Trump poses a unique existential risk to the continuation of the republic as we know it. But the continuation of the republic as we know it is only worth preserving if the lawful means that that republic provides for selecting and restraining leaders is sufficient -- and the wisdom of the voting citizenry is sufficient -- to avoid the threat. If it's not, then there's nothing to protect in the first place. And if we're uncertain, then better to wait it out and see if our republic is sufficient or not.
The signs struck me as annoying, to the extent they smacked of a blanket judgment on the hearts of Trump voters. But they also caused me to wonder exactly what their message meant to the person who bothered to acquire and display one. My guess is there was a spectrum of motives/thinking. Because I personally know lovely people who had them in their yards, so I could only assume that whatever inspired them, it was not their purpose to spiritually judge their Trump-voting neighbors (to the extent they were aware they had any). At the same time, given the popularity on the left of the "deplorables" rhetoric at the time, it seems pretty certain that some subset of people were choosing those signs as a righteous rebuke to the deplorable willingness of Republicans to line up behind Trump. In which case, the irony of their sign's message was cringe-worthy. But I agree: presuming any particular sign owner was motivated by contempt is itself a judgment that its not our business to make.
One of these days I'd really like to sit down and hear more from you re: your concerns about Trump as an existential threat. I do not like his personality or his leadership — his energy (which is how I tend to assess people) seems profoundly ungrounded, chaotic — so I'm not a fan. Yet I don't perceive the existential angle. To me, the flagrant failure of the current administration to uphold their basic oaths of office re: protecting our borders and our 1A rights, as well as their attachment to the globalist corporatist agenda over the will of the citizenry has me feeling strongly that *they* are the existential threat to America continuing as a sovereign nation; they are all in with the crowd who wants to end nation-states and have a global government run by elites. No thanks. I prefer good ol' America with secured borders and liberties. Hopefully someday soon we'll find a chance to have that discussion.
Sure, happy to discuss it. I'm planning to write something up at some point and maybe post it. On the balance of policy issues I would certainly prefer most the policies that Trump aligns with. But the threat comes from what I perceive is his unwillingness to allow his own personal power to be constrained by law, the Constitution, democratic or republican principles of limited power or any other constraint. Barring that the only constraints are the constraints that come from others in office, but he now was complete control of the Republican Party. His actions from November 2020 to January 2021 confirmed my worst fears of what might follow as a result from what I perceived about his character in 2016. My fears about a trump presidency are less about what would happen from 2025 to 2028, and more about what's going to happen in 2029 and if the electorate will get to choose who leads then, and what follows from that.
Well, if you tried to discuss it with them, they would exile you to Hate Land. I tried to clarify some parts of the demonized Project 2025, and became the butt of such vicious, low IQ vitriol, I lost all hope. I wasn't even saying that I agree with it; I was simply saying that no, conservatives do NOT want to "Make Women Property Again," (as if they ever were?)
Amen!
So you chose an interesting symbol to make a very powerful spiritual point (one I agree with) but it has an undertone that anyone who put up (and maybe still has those signs up in their yard) might be hypocritical, a claim I don’t think you wanted to make. I recall that those signs went up eight years ago in response to Trump’s hateful rhetoric- he attacked disabled people (even vets), he attacked women, he attacked immigrants, he belittled other Republican candidates who believed in compromise as part of the political process, and it has continued for eight years, to the point that now anyone who is a Democrat and opposes his rhetoric or political positions is labeled a “traitor.” Words matter. (And I think most of my conservative friends opposed his rhetoric as much as I did, but once he became the candidate, just like today, they are stuck with him.) I believe the doctrines teach us that we should look for the good in everyone, but we can and should oppose (even “hate”) the evil. To me that’s what those signs represented, people opposing the hateful rhetoric, and we can continue to oppose hateful words and of course hateful actions. In the end everyone who cares about the good of the country and our neighbors is thinking the same thing Leah – we all have to turn down the heat, look for the good in each other and find the common ground in the country. Thanks for posting and keeping the dialogue civil and spiritual.
Thanks for your comment, Dan. I appreciate the thoughtful challenge you bring.
I chose to mention the signs in part because they have always been a source of curiosity to me (as well as annoyance, not gonna lie). I have long assumed that many people who displayed them had in their hearts exactly what you said: the desire to show a stand against hateful rhetoric, to say "Not Okay" to it. Yet, I think that basic (reasonable) message was quickly skewed by the fact that the signs also read as "A Hillary Voter Lives Here" and so they mostly served as a partisan symbol delineating Us versus Them, meaning, We Who Care About Others versus Deplorables Who Don't.
The inescapable implication of saying "hate has no home here" is the suggestion that it does have a home with others, and in a polarized political landscape, it's hard to fault people for perceiving an insult, a judgment, whether one was directly intended or not. As I said in my comment to Erik, I don't think it's my business to worry about what any particular sign owner meant — as you said, we should assume the best.
But given that the signs symbolized both an accusation and a stand against Trump, I'd argue it's not unreasonable to wonder how those who went so far as to openly display their objection to him reacted to Saturday's news. I spent a little time that evening on Twitter (IKR?) and I found two things quite alarming: 1) the numbers of people who are so deranged by their antipathy for Trump that they went on record as angry or sad that the shooter missed; 2) the overall tone on the right that was spoiling for a fight, ready to take the battle to the enemy. Yikes and Yikes!! (I know Twitter does not represent all of society, but it’s where a lot of our political discourse emerges and takes shape, and it’s where many people will say what they think, hiding behind a screen. So it’s not meaningless in gauging our political landscape.)
As I said in my essay, I am guessing many — hopefully most — sign owners are not so opposed as to wish Trump taken out by a shooter, but the antipathy and rage out there swirling around this one candidate from every direction is seriously concerning, seriously deranging and destabilizing. Turning down the heat is a must, but I think it’s fair to note that the constant drumbeat of Trump = Hitler 2.0 from the left media and Biden wing of the party has surely helped set the stage for this level of ugliness. The hateful, deplorable rhetoric is not all on Trump by a long shot, and he didn’t invent it either (as any student of America’s political history knows).
So yes, absolutely — look for the good in each other and find the common ground in the country. That's the best possible advice. It's also the ethos of the guy I'm voting for, because he lives the creed and leads by example. 🇺🇸🙌🏻RFK all the way!🙌🏻🇺🇸
Ah Leah....I have only now just read this post as I lost it among other "important" stuff :)
Such a great commentary, and the comments from readers were excellent as well. I have a very liberal relative and her friend coming for a visit here to our cabin for the Labor Day Weekend, and I hate to say it, but I am fearful of any politics coming up. They are both nuns who are involved in all sorts of liberal politics in Illinois and across the nation. I recently sent a post to another liberal relative regarding the DNC machinations with RFK Jr., Cornell West and Jill Stein as well as the emergence of Kamala as the next great hope of the world (after Obama.). To his credit, he did listen to the podcast but said he would probably disagree with Kamala on some things but could never bring himself to vote for Trump because of his immorality, hubris and dishonesty. I was at a loss at that point as I wasn't going to go tit for tat on this, so I moved on to other topics in our email communication. We are at a stage here, where the hatred....per your article....of Trump is beyond common sense and logic, and no matter what we learn, it won't matter for their vote. And good people - like RFK Jr. - are not even given air time by the press and the establishment - and so we are left with two bad choices. However, the Trump choice is, by my reckoning (to use your phrase) the more sane of the two, no matter the personality. The lawn signs have been a constant irritation to me, precisely because of what I perceive as their virtue signaling. And we conservatives are perceived to be ignorant and wanting to take the nation back to the dark ages. Sad that love of the constitution, the rule of law, the unborn, free speech, educational opportunities for all, merit v. identity, protection of young people's bodies, the right to defend ourselves, and freedom from government are considered "deplorable." Keep up the good work! Peace and love to you and all here. Ellen
I love to hear this blog post resonated. And I admire your friend openness—and your courage to have such a potentially difficult conversation. It’s a beautiful thing to have such friendships in our lives.