Remember the state of politics in America while you were growing up?
The U.S. political system is adversarial by design, with the two major parties having evolved over time and engaging in a perpetual tug-of-war for public support. Civil debates, negotiations, and even compromises weren't all that rare. It was as if both sides cared more about the well-being of all Americans, as opposed to special interest groups and various identities.
Yep, those days are long gone — for now, anyway.
According to a new poll, more than half of Americans expect political violence — including assassination attempts on political figures — to intensify in the coming years, with a chilling plurality believing a major political candidate could be gunned down within the next five years.
It gets even worse: the poll also found that nearly one in three Americans under the age of 45 believes political violence is justified.
I'm not fond of the social media "think about that" admonition, but, yeah — think about that.
While poll results come and go, and statistics change or can be easily manipulated, one thing remains ominously clear:
Radical left-wing rhetoric, combined with intentional efforts to break down the civil and moral norms that once held our country together, continues to make America a more dangerous place than most of us would have imagined as we were growing up.
Here's more, via Politico:
Most Americans expect political violence to keep growing in the United States and believe that it is likely a political candidate will be assassinated in the next few years.
Widespread pessimism about political violence is a rare, grim point of consensus in a country riven by political and cultural divisions.
A majority of Americans, 55 percent, expect political violence to increase, according to a new poll from POLITICO and Public First. That figure underscores just how much the spate of attacks — from the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this year to the attempts on President Donald Trump’s life in 2024 — have rattled the nation.
It’s a view held by majorities of Americans all across lines like gender, age, party affiliation and level of education, though Democrats and older voters expressed particular concern.
While Politico is not exactly a conservative outlet, it's hard to argue with the above assessment.
While decent Americans, including some of our Democrat friends, condemned the assassination attempts against President Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election campaign season — and of course the brutal public murder of Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk — it's wise for conservatives to remember the "peaceful protests" (read: riots, arson, looting, and bloodshed) in the aftermath of George Floyd's 2020 death in Minneapolis, along with various "peaceful protests" that have continued — for various reasons and causes —ever since.
Toss in the Left's "by any means necessary" mantra, or "the end justifies the means," and there it is; violence becomes inevitable in the warped minds of radicals who take the Left's grievance industry to a new ominous level.
ALSO CHECK OUT: 'Some People Just Snap': Gunfire Erupts After Trump Banner Torn Down in Elderly Woman's Yard
Rage Rhetoric Continues Unabated
Author and political commentator Jonathan Turley on Tuesday dropped an article in which he noted several recent examples of irresponsible rage rhetoric spewed by Democrat political figures (emphasis, mine):
DNC Chair Ken Martin just told MSNBC’s “The Beat” that “we may be nearing” the moment when “elections don’t matter and then the resistance looks completely different.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on people to “forcefully rise up.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY0 who pictures himself brandishing a baseball bat has previously called upon people to “fight in the streets.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom previously declared, “I’m going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger called upon her supporters to “Let your rage fuel you.” She then refused to withdraw her support for the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Jay Jones, who once expressed his desire to kill his political opponents and his children.
In his podcast with co-host Al Hunt, James Carville was again spewing unhinged hate. He returned to treating Trump and others as Nazis and their supporters as “collaborators.”
The list goes on, and it continues to grow.
Fascinating, isn't it, how the Left continues to scaremonger about "right-wing" violence and hate, and of course the evils of Donald Trump, while Democrat politicians and influencers continue to use incendiary language to a degree that makes it not all that hard to connect the dots between their rhetoric and the crazed leftists who are more than willing to turn their words into horrific acts of violence?
Actually, it's not all that surprising, given the unbridled hatred of all things Donald Trump.
