Political violence and incivility are largely a phenomenon exhibited by people who know they cannot prevail in a fair competition of ideas and who feel their only hope of "winning" is by insulting or assaulting their opponents.
The Daily Caller has catalogued a list of over twenty instances of deplorable behavior toward one's political adversaries in just the last seven and a half months. There may be similar examples of people who would call themselves conservatives engaging in such disgusting rhetoric and behavior, but in the cases below the perpetrators happen to be all people on the left.
Even so, if someone were to ask me how often I saw or heard rhetoric of this level of violence and incivility directed at Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or their supporters, my honest answer would be, not very often.
I'm not referring here to the kind of uninformed bluster inflicted upon us by our besotted Uncle Willie at the family picnic, of course. Rather I'm referring to political rhetoric emanating from conservative leaders in politics, the media, or business.
Anyway, here's a selection culled from the Daily Caller's list:
1/12: CNN guest Rick Wilson threatens to “gut” a Trump supporter “like a fish”
3/15: Capitol police arrest Democratic operative for assaulting female Interior Department communications official
5/08: Woman charged with felony reckless endangerment for trying to run Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) and an aide off the road
5/11: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace suggests “wringing” Sarah Sanders’ neck
6/20: Kirstjen Nielsen driven out of Mexican restaurant
6/22: Red Hen restaurant owner refuses to serve Sarah Sanders
6/23: Rep. Maxine Waters calls on supporters to harass Trump officials in public, says “God is on [their] side”
6/23: Florida AG Pam Bondi is confronted, spit upon at movie theater
6/29: Feds arrest man threatening to kill Ajit Pai’s children
7/6: Man arrested for making “terroristic threats” against Rep. Zeldin staffer and Trump supporters
7/16: Rep. Cohen tells “military folks” to stop Trump
7/25: Sen. Cory Booker tells people to “get up in the face of some congresspeople”
8/1: CNN’s Symone Sanders says Trump officials getting harassed is the “name of the game”
8/9: Newly uncovered audio reveals Dem Rep. Steve Cohen joking about GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn jumping off a bridge
8/12: Antifa protesters say they would like to “murder” Trump — “do him like Gaddafi”
8/13: Pearl Jam depicts dead Trump on concert poster for fundraiser for Dem Senate candidate Jon Tester
8/19: Rep. Hastings (D-Fla.): It would be a “catastrophe” if someone saved Trump from drowning.
As bad as some of President Trump's tweets and rhetoric have been, have they really been this bad? To be sure, the president has set an awful example for our citizenry, especially our young, as to how our political discourse should be conducted, but these people on the Daily Caller's list are incentivizing actual violence against people who disagree with them, and that's despicable.
Inflammatory discourse and hatred can only breed resentments and bitterness in our politics and result in more tragedies like the Rep. Steve Scalise shooting. If and when such violence does recur the victims' blood will be on the hands of everyone who dehumanized, or countenanced violence against, their political opponents, even if it was only supposed to be a "joke".
After all, joking about someone's death is only funny to the immature and the mentally deranged.
