In 2024, Kristi Noem told a story from her own memoir.
A young hunting dog had torn through a neighbor's chickens, killing them one after another. When she grabbed it, the dog turned and bit her. She made the same hard call ranchers have made for generations, and she put the dog down.
The reaction was instant and total. Democrats and their media allies spent weeks calling her a monster. Her character was put on trial. Her career was declared dead.
Now look at Duxbury, Massachusetts.
In January 2023, Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children in their home. Cora was 5. Dawson was 3. Callan was 8 months old.
Not with a gun. Not in an instant. With her own hands.
Her defense never disputed that she caused their deaths. It argued she shouldn't be held responsible.
Then something strange happened. Supporters lined up behind her. Videos went viral declaring solidarity with her. Her trial ended in a mistrial in September, and a GoFundMe for her family shot past $1.1 million.
Read those two stories side by side.
A woman who protected her neighbor's livestock and herself from a dangerous animal got wall-to-wall condemnation. A woman who took the lives of three little children got sympathy, solidarity, and seven figures.
Where was the outrage for Cora, Dawson, and Callan? Where were the rallies in their names?
The prophet Isaiah warned about this exact moment: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil."
We are living in it.
A culture that saves its compassion for the one who did the killing and forgets the children has lost its moral compass. That isn't a political problem. It's a moral one.
America won't find its way back until we decide, again, which side of that line we stand on.