Editors at the Washington Examiner ponder the political left’s “rhetorical blind spot.”
There have now been two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump in just over two months. What is the response of the Democratic Party and its media allies? Answer: Blame Trump rather than their own extremist rhetoric.
Especially during a presidential campaign season, politics is always filled with martial language from both sides. Candidates talk about “fighting” and winning “battles,” of being “in the crosshairs,” etc. This is the same rhetoric we see in other areas, such as sports, yet, fortunately, there is little violence in that arena.
What one does not see in sports, however, is comparisons to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini or the routine labeling of an opponent as a “dictator.”
That, however, is what the Democratic Party and its media allies have been doing to Trump and the Republican Party for years. Former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and former Sen. Claire McCaskill both outright compared him to Hitler himself, as have anchors at CNN and MSNBC.
Vice President Kamala Harris, just days ago in Pennsylvania, said Trump “would be a dictator on Day One” and has made it a theme of her campaign that Trump “is a threat to our democracy.” Not to be outdone, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) has said Trump “is destructive to our democracy … and he has … to be eliminated.”
If Democrats believe their claim that Republican rhetoric on immigration triggers violence against immigrants — there is no evidence it is — it would stand to reason that their own rhetoric calling Trump a “threat to democracy” who “has to be eliminated” might cause violence against Republicans.
It certainly appears to do so. The suspected Trump shooter is from North Carolina, where he voted for Democratic Party candidates and donated to Democratic Party campaigns. Considering that he flew to Ukraine to help fight the Russian invasion, he appears to be a man moved to action by words.
