Whatever the motivations of the attempted assassin of Trump, still undisclosed by the FBI, it has taken that attempt to focus greater public scrutiny on calls for violence from the Left.

     Let's remind ourselves of just a few of the many examples:

• Obama declaring if they bring a knife, we bring a gun
• Madonna saying she'd thought a lot about blowing up the White House (when Trump was in it)
• Kathy Griffin infamously holding up a depiction of Trump's bloody, severed head
• Shakespeare-in-the-Park portraying Julius Caesar's assassination with a Trump look-alike
• Biden saying he'd like to take Trump behind the gym and "beat the hell out of him"
• Schumer threatening the Supreme Court: "...you will pay the price. You will not know what hit you..."
• Kamala Harris saying of the violent 2021 riots that they were justified and that they should continue: "they're not gonna let up, and they should not."
• Rep. Maxine Waters declaring about Trump administration officials:    "push back on them and tell them they are not welcome  anymore, anywhere," that one should "absolute harass them," and that "I will go and take Trump out tonight."
• Madame Speaker Pelosi saying "I just don't know why there aren't            uprisings all over the country."
• Johnny Depp asking: "When was the last time an actor assassinated a        president?"
• Democrat Rep. Paul Kanjorski saying about the Republican candidate      for governor of Florida: "...they ought to...shoot him. Put him                     against the wall and shoot him."
•  Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman saying Trump should be "eliminated."
•  Former Attorney General Eric Holder saying: "When they go low, we         kick them!"
•  Both Nicole Wallace and Robert De Niro agreeing Trump deserved to         be punched in the face.
•  Biden claiming, only days before the assassination attempt: "...it's time       to put Trump in a bull's eye."

The Left's response to these and other even more outrageous calls is not to deny them, which is difficult if not impossible to do in this video age. Instead, the response is predictably threefold: 1) they were taken out of context, 2) the Left has piously denounced violence, and 3) the Right is also inciting violence. None of these addresses the damage already done, any more than a polluter can call back the pollutants he has released after the fact by claiming he has been misunderstood, or that he repudiates polluters, or that others are doing it.

These direct calls for violence are bad enough, yet the more indirect attacks on political opponents by the Left are arguably even more impactful in creating a climate in which the chances of violence are exonentially increased.

Take first the relentless campaign of attacks -- still ongoing even after the assassination attempt -- depicting Trump as "Hitler,", "traitor," an "existential threat to our Democracy." These calls have emanated from President Biden and Vice President Harris all the way down and through the leftist ranks. Former First Lady Hillary Clinton has ominously declared the end of our country if Trump is elected in 2024. Any American halfway alive today must have noticed how dominant a theme this vicious line of attack has become.

Does it not occur to the Left that in a land of approaching 400 million people there will not be someone unhinged enough to interpret them as a call to be a "hero" and eliminate such an existential threat to the whole nation? Would it not seem to such an individual, and all it takes is one, that it is his/her civic duty on behalf of all of us, to take such a threat to the nation out?

Second, consider the unprecedented lawfare still being waged by the weaponization of our whole government and its accomplices against a political opponent. The attempted actions are so severe that they carry an implicit message: this candidate is so reprehensible as to be a legitimate target by even illegitimate attacks. Remove him from the ballot! After all, he is a "traitor"! Gag his free speech! All citizens are supposed to have that right, so the denial is a declaration he is beneath basic rights. Deny him all due process! Same conclusion. Who but a dangerous criminal should have his home raided at dawn and without warning by dozens of armed federal agents? Or subjected to the statistical fraud of 91 bogus criminal indictments?

One of the most important messages that the electorate can send this year is that this culture of fomenting violence directly and indirectly must stop.

Image: That's Just Great