By Joseph Backholm

Renee Good’s death at the hands of an Immigrations Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agent has reinvigorated conversations about law enforcement broadly and the Trump administration specifically. When a confrontation with law enforcement ends in someone’s death, it’s always appropriate to investigate whether law enforcement behaved appropriately, or whether there is something about their training, preparation, or attitude that needs to change.

But there’s always two sides in a conflict, and if it’s fair to question whether this ICE agent had been emersed in an environment that caused someone’s death, it’s also fair to wonder whether the cause that motivated Renee Good that day was a contributing factor, and I believe it was.

The progressive worldview is built on the assumption that it is always immoral to stop people from having what they want. If coming into America will make them happy, they should be allowed to and any efforts to prevent that are immoral. If being a different gender will make them happy, then they are, and any effort to suggest otherwise is immoral.

But the Left’s concern for other people’s happiness is very selective. Only people who have been identified as part of “The Oppressed” deserve empathy. This is why they empathize with Somali criminal syndicates and Venezuelan gangs but not with law-abiding citizens who are victimized by them. This is why they empathize with people who destroy cities in the name of “social justice” but not with the people whose property is destroyed. This is why they empathize with the boy who is not allowed to compete with the girls, but not with the girls who have their spots taken by boys.

For leftists, there are some people to whom empathy MUST be given and some people to whom empathy CANNOT be given.

Their commitment to always siding with “The Oppressed” in opposition to “The Oppressors” makes them incapable of measured behavior and incapable of giving respect to people they disagree with. In their mind, they aren’t dealing with friends and neighbors who have different opinions. They’re dealing with evil people who must be stopped by any means necessary; people who exist to prevent other people from being happy.

This is why Renee Good was where she was and why she was doing the things she was doing when she was killed. It’s also why she was incapable of following the instructions of ICE agents and instead behaved in a way that was highly disrespectful and very dangerous. In her mind, they weren’t law enforcement agents who, despite her differences with their bosses, were providing a dangerous service essential to ordered liberty. They’re Nazis, and no one respects Nazis. Lots of people reading this agree with her.

The problem is, those ICE agents had guns, the law was on their side, and she behaved in a way that convinced them she intended to harm them. And maybe she did.

Whether in marriage, businesses, or politics, a relationship cannot survive without mutual respect. Conflict is inevitable, and it is the ability to assume the best about others that makes it possible to get through conflict. Progressivism is inherently destructive to a society, in part, because it demands its adherents assume the worst about those they disagree with. It demands conflict with “The Oppressors” and sees compromise, patience, forgiveness, or understanding as tools of oppression rather than virtues essential to stable communities. They don’t “seek first to understand,” they “resist” until you have submitted.

This is why Charlie Kirk is dead, and it’s part of the reason Renee Good is dead, too. Were there other relevant factors? Yes. But let this be your latest reminder that ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. And progressivism is a collection of very bad ideas… that might get you killed.

Joseph Backholm is Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council.