By Kelly John Walker | FreedomTalk Magazine September, 2026 pages 14-15
America offers political sanctuary to everyone—except our own citizens.
America has long offered refuge to people fleeing political persecution. But what happens when Americans need sanctuary from their own government?
I was discussing this question back in 2023, including in a FreedomTalk show with Seak Smith and Bryce Eddy. For those who have personally experienced political targeting, this is not theoretical, hyperbolic, or partisan. It is a matter of survival.
Smith came to America as a refugee. Her father escaped communism and genocide in Cambodia during the 1970s. A soldier in the Cambodian army and a musician, he embodied precisely the kind of person the Khmer Rouge marked for elimination—someone connected to the previous culture and influenced by the West.
Under Cambodia’s communist regime, wearing glasses could identify someone as educated. Possessing professional wedding photographs could suggest wealth. People learned to conceal their histories, relationships, and identities to avoid becoming targets.
Tyranny advances by dividing people into groups, stigmatizing those who resist, and teaching ordinary citizens to participate in their neighbors’ persecution.
Smith recognized familiar warning signs during COVID. While living in Los Angeles, she watched government officials encourage residents to report neighbors who gathered in defiance of lockdown orders—with threats to cut off their water and electricity.
Civilization, Eddy observed, is “a very thin veneer.” People assume their society is too enlightened for tyranny—until fear exposes how quickly neighbors can turn upon one another and institutions can abandon their purpose.
Eddy raised the question Americans must confront: “Where can you flee?” Previous generations escaping communism, fascism, and genocide could look toward America. But if America abandons liberty—and similar authoritarian impulses spread across the Western world—what refuge remains?
We already recognize sanctuary as a legitimate political concept. States and cities have declared themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants, abortion providers, and those seeking transgender procedures. Whether one supports those policies or not, they establish an important principle: state and local governments sometimes claim an obligation to shield people from laws they consider unjust.
Why, then, is there no sanctuary for American citizens who can demonstrate that the legal system is being weaponized against them because of their political beliefs? We believe in the rule of law—but not rule by law. Law exists to restrain power, protect the innocent, and preserve our God-given rights. When officials selectively investigate, prosecute, punish, or financially destroy political opponents, the law ceases to be a shield and becomes a weapon.
