A funny thing happened after I wrote about political dehumanization: a local journalist responded by personally attacking me.
Fan Mail
I recently wrote The Guillotine Arrives in Santa Barbara after guillotine imagery appeared during Santa Barbara’s rent-control debate.
I wrote:
“This blade of retribution didn’t appear because of a war, a presidential election, or the Constitution. It appeared over rent control.
“When I saw the photograph, I expected the news coverage to focus on the protester who chose to display a guillotine – a symbol historically associated with political executions – and ask why that symbol was used.”
My argument was simple. For years, many Democrat leaders and commentators have described President Trump and Republicans using terms such as “dictator,” “fascist,” “Nazi,” “threat to democracy,” “enemy of freedom,” and “existential threat to the republic.”
We aren’t talking about some tiny fringe. More than 77 million Americans voted for Trump in 2024.
We have also watched elected officials compare federal law enforcement enforcing our nation’s laws to the Gestapo; we have seen our own D.A. denounce federal officers enforcing federal warrants.
Democrats controlled the White House, House, and Senate under Joe Biden, yet did not repeal or replace the major immigration laws signed by Bill Clinton. Laws federal immigration officers enforced under Clinton, Obama, and today.
I also wrote, we have watched assassination attempts against public officials, threats against federal judges, violence against law enforcement and private businesses, riots, and political violence in the streets.
But I explicitly added:
“I’m not suggesting rhetoric alone caused those events.”
That distinction matters. I never named individuals because my point concerned a larger problem: What happens when political disagreement becomes dehumanization? If rhetoric has consequences, shouldn’t we examine rhetoric from all sides?
Then Jerry Roberts responded.
And, remarkably, Jerry helped make my point.
Nothing Personal, Brian
Jerry wrote that it is a “damn shame” local public officials are “bullied, menaced, and subjected to performative intimidation.”
I agree.
He also wrote:
“It’s the job of the local press to hold elected officials accountable for their words and actions.”
Excellent.
Does that include Democrat politicians who call Republicans threats to democracy, compare an elected president to Hitler, or characterize federal law enforcement as the Gestapo?
Apparently not.
If words matter, surely the standard applies regardless of who says them.
Yet Jerry called me – a private citizen – out by name, describing me as a “serial failed political candidate,” accusing me of “Covid-era amnesia,” “willful blindness,” and sarcastically referring to Trump as my “Dear Leader.”
Just like an armchair quarterback who never steps up.
One small problem: I have never described myself as pro-Trump, much less called Trump my “Dear Leader.”
Jerry, I vote on issues and track record not party lines unlike some others reading this.
When I ran for office, Jerry seemed confused by his own assumptions about me. I had a humanitarian plan to help the homeless, help local businesses, help students, and do it without simply taking more from taxpayers.
Apparently, disagreeing with Santa Barbara’s political establishment comes with bullying and ridicule. Evil hates the light of truth.
That is exactly what we have watched happen locally and nationally. Too often, disagreement is met not with discussion, but with labels, ridicule, and personal attacks.
Instead of debating the argument, attack the person making it.
Nancy Pelosi once described the political tactic as the “wrap-up smear.” Demonize someone, smear them with falsehoods, get the accusation reported, then point to that reporting as validation.
Thank you, Jerry, for demonstrating precisely the political discourse my article warned about.
Somehow It Was Still Trump
Jerry objected to my questioning his attempt to connect our local City Hall controversy directly to President Trump. He quoted me:
“Trump wasn’t at the meeting. He has no authority over Santa Barbara’s rent stabilization ordinance.”
Correct.
This was a local rent-control dispute. Trump didn’t bring the guillotine imagery. Trump doesn’t determine Santa Barbara rent policy.
Yet Jerry wrote that “Trump’s coarsening of the national discourse has made its way to Santa Barbara.”
That was exactly what I questioned. Look at who called voters a “threat to democracy.”
The Pot Calling the Kettle Black
If political rhetoric can intimidate, inflame, and destroy civility, why examine the rhetoric of only one side?
We forget we are all neighbors.
Ironically, Jerry demonstrated that one-sidedness perfectly. While condemning political intimidation, he responded to an opposing viewpoint with labels, ridicule, and personal attacks of his own on a private citizen.
I – like numerous voters – am asking for one standard, not “rules for thee, not for me.” Thank you, Pelosi and Newsom, for demonstrating how you are above the laws and lockdowns. And thank you Jerry for perfectly applying Pelosi’s smear campaign.
The School Board Detour
Jerry then traveled back to Santa Barbara school-board meetings, claiming I joined “disruptive public commenters” who “routinely targeted trustees, administrators, and teachers, with insults and disrespect.”
I certainly attended school-board meetings and challenged district policies, which Jerry never attended. I also ran for school board because, as a parent, I believed academics, curriculum, and parental oversight deserved attention.
One controversy involved sexually explicit material available to students.
Gender Queer: A Memoir was in the Santa Barbara High School library. That fact is documented in local reporting. Its pages contain sexually explicit language and illustrations, including depictions, images, and instructions, of gay oral sex; the Independent reported that the book contained panels depicting two young people engaged in oral sex. But Jerry failed to acknowledge this fact.
Journalism at its best.
At a school-board meeting, I attempted to read from the book and display what students could access. The board would not allow the sexually explicit material to be read or displayed publicly.
Think about that.
Material considered too sexually explicit to read or display at a public meeting attended by adults was nevertheless available to children in a public-school library.
Apparently, questioning that contradiction makes someone “disruptive.”
I call it being a parent.
Jerry and Biden’s FBI labels us terrorists.
(The drawings used are too graphic for a family publication such as this.)
Neighbors, Remember?
My original article asked:
“What if civil wars don’t begin with gunfire?
“What if they begin when neighbors stop believing they belong to the same community, when disagreement is no longer enough and political opponents become enemies?”
That was the point.
I didn’t name Jerry Roberts. I questioned a political culture increasingly willing to turn opponents into caricatures.
Jerry responded in lockstep with the radical communist agenda of attacking anyone with a different point of view, anyone who actually cares about our children and our community.
Proving that in Santa Barbara, those who disagree with the political party in charge are seen as bitter enemies, not neighbors with a differing view.
And there it is.
Thank you, Jerry, for demonstrating the very political discourse my article was warning about.
At least you didn’t call me a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier.”
Rather than answer personal attacks with more personal attacks, however, I’ll pray for Jerry and for all of us who sometimes forget that political opponents are still our neighbors.
Father, give us wisdom to seek truth before accusation, humility to listen before judging, and courage to disagree without hatred.
Guard our tongues from false witness and our hearts from bitterness.
Help us remember that those who disagree with us are not our enemies, but our neighbors.
As Jesus taught:
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44, KJV)
Perhaps that is the standard we need most: not victory over our political opponents, but the grace to love our neighbors even when we disagree.
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