Leadership Quote by Dave Reichert

Fear does a lot of work in a sentence like this, and Dave Reichert knows it. “Today, we realize” casts the speaker as the sober adult in the room, ushering the audience from innocence into a grim, shared clarity. It’s not just an update; it’s a conversion narrative. The timeline matters: “today” implies a before-and-after moment, an awakening that excuses urgency and compresses debate. If you only just “realize” the threat, you’re forgiven for whatever sweeping measures you’re about to endorse.

The phrasing is carefully escalatory. “Those actively seeking” turns danger into intent, not accident; it’s not crime, it’s strategy. “Harm us” keeps the target broad and intimate at once, a soft first step before the harder imagery of “destroy our infrastructure and take lives.” Infrastructure is an especially modern trigger word: it’s both literal (bridges, power grids) and symbolic (the systems that make normal life possible). Mentioning it invites the public to imagine vulnerability everywhere, from commuting to electricity, without naming any specific adversary that could be challenged on facts.

The subtext is political permission. A faceless “those” creates unity by erasing nuance: if the threat is everywhere and nowhere, scrutiny looks like naivete. Reichert, a law-and-order figure with a policing background, is also implicitly validating expanded security powers, budgets, surveillance, and harsher prosecutorial posture. The quote is built to move audiences from concern to consent, translating anxiety into a mandate.