This Is Domestic Terrorism. Call It What It Is.
They’re Coming for All of Us
On the first night of Passover, someone tried to burn down the home of Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania—a Jewish governor, the father of four children, and a leading potential Democratic contender for the 2028 presidency. Cody Balmer, the 24-year-old white man who allegedly lit the fire, has since been arrested and charged with arson, risking catastrophe. Police say the fire was deliberate. Shapiro’s family was home. They escaped physically unharmed. But let’s not downplay this: this was an attack on a Jewish family, by fire, on a Jewish holiday.
This is domestic terrorism, and if you’re not already feeling the panic, start listening to the alarm bells now.
A Very Loud Echo From the Past
In Nazi Germany, Kristallnacht marked a turning point from hateful rhetoric to organized violence. Synagogues burned. Jewish families were attacked in their homes. The fires of fascism weren’t metaphorical. They were literal.
It’s 2025. A Jewish governor is targeted with arson on the first night of Passover, and too many in the media are calling this “vandalism” or “a suspicious fire.” This wasn’t some misguided act. This was an ideological act of hate, and it's part of a much larger trend we’re living through: the rising tide of American fascism.
You don’t need a decoder ring to understand what’s happening. We are living in a moment where President Donald Trump continues to peddle antisemitic tropes, including the claim that American Jews who vote Democrat are “disloyal” to Israel or to Jewish people broadly—a dangerous accusation that echoes long-standing, conspiratorial stereotypes. In 2019, he said as much, and he’s never backed down. His language has repeatedly flirted with the idea that Jewish identity must be tied to political loyalty and financial power—rhetoric that fuels the very ideologies that lead to violence. During the campaign, Trump has welcomed support from white nationalists, dining in 2022 with far-right Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, who had just made his own antisemitic remarks. These are not gaffes—they are choices, made repeatedly and without apology.
The violent ecosystem Trump empowers is broader than antisemitism. The MAGA movement has consistently targeted vulnerable communities—Black elected officials, trans people, immigrants, and more. In 2023, multiple Black officials reported threats and harassment, often directly tied to right-wing extremism. And in 2025, on Transgender Day of Visibility, civil rights activists sounded the alarm over an escalating pattern of legislative and physical attacks against trans and nonbinary people. These are not disparate hate crimes—they are the coordinated outputs of a movement steeped in authoritarian grievance and supremacist ideology. When leaders signal that certain groups are less American or less deserving, their followers light the matches.
This is not isolated. This is systemic.
They’re Coming for All of Us
Let’s say this plainly: when Jewish people are targeted, we are all less safe. When Black communities are harassed and their leaders threatened, we are all less safe. When trans people are villainized, restricted, and attacked just for existing, we are all less safe. These attacks are not separate; they are intertwined acts of fascist enforcement—an attempt to erase, terrify, and control.
The same forces that cheer for book bans, chant “blood and soil,” and shout down drag queens are the ones now lighting fires at the homes of governors. They want control. They want fear. And they will come for anyone who does not fit their cruel, narrow vision of America.
Josh Shapiro is not just a Jewish man. He’s not just the governor of one of the most important swing states in the country. He’s also a potential future president—a centrist Democrat with a record of winning big in hostile territory. He is exactly the kind of leader the MAGA machine fears: Jewish, popular, pragmatic, unafraid.
This attack is a warning shot. And not just at him.
The Fire This Time
Domestic terrorism is not only when a bomb goes off or bullets fly. It’s when someone sets fire to a home in the dead of night because they hate who lives inside. It’s when the goal is to terrify a family because of their faith, their politics, or their identity. It is meant to send a message: you are not safe here.
Well, here's the message we need to send back:
You will not scare us into silence. You will not burn away our democracy. You will not erase us.
As a gay Jewish man, I am outraged beyond measure. But I am also clear-eyed. We are not just fighting a culture war. We are in a battle for the soul of the nation—one where the threats are not just theoretical. They are already here, stalking our streets and setting fire to our homes.
If you're not Jewish, not Black, not trans, not visibly “other,” this is still your fight. Silence is complicity. This is a moment to speak up, stand up, and show up. Not tomorrow. Now.
Because the fire is burning. And history has taught us what happens when we wait too long to put it out.