
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For the past year, there have been two evergreen threads in the Democrat’s political dialogue – that President Trump’s rhetoric can and has promoted violence (although the evidence and connection to him is very tenuous) and that he is an evil and demonic heartless Hitler-style individual and an asset of Vladimir Putin whose election will destroy the American democracy and lead to an oppressive dictatorship. These descriptions of Trump were not intimated but declared as facts on a daily basis by the most prominent left-wing political and media personalities. He had to be stopped from regaining power at all costs.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Even as the folks on the radical left were declaring that Trump’s language could, would and did provoke violent actions, they ironically and hypocritically carried out the most vicious and mendacious scaremongering attacks on Trump – AND his supporters. ; They set Trump up as THE existential threat to the nation and even to the welfare of world democracies. ; He must not be allowed to return to the White House under any circumstances, they warned over and over. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">True &#8230; they did not call specifically for Trump’s death. ; But for the gullible and mentally compromised, arriving at that conclusion was a very short leap. ; And apparently 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks took it. ; As of this writing any motivation has not been discerned, but he is politically engaged and did try to kill Trump.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The motivation for the attempt to kill Trump is complex –as it always is when dealing with mental illness. One thing is clear, Crooks wanted Trump removed from the political scene. As with Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth, Crooks saw some perverted noble purpose in eliminating Trump.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Those on the left say that line can be drawn between the unprecedented hyperbolic fearmongering rhetoric they have been using against Trump – even as they have been alleging that Trump’s far less provocative language has incited virtually every act of violence in the past several years – and always a spin to the right.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Those who have pointed out the Democrats&#8217; hypocrisy and potential culpability have now been attacked by the left – even as they are now forced to call for a cooling down of the political rhetoric. CNN’s Jake Tapper called for the end of the “demonization” of our political leaders even as he absolved left-wing rhetoric as a possible provocateur of the attempted assassination.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In a virtual admission of the excessive provocativeness of its programming, MSNBC took the Monday broadcast of “Morning Joe” off the air out of fear that some of its overheated panelists would carry on their vicious rhetoric demonizing Trump.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">President Biden has called for a toning down of the rhetoric. ; Does that mean an end of the strategy of labeling Trump an existential threat to America?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tapper, MSNBC and Biden are all correct. The demonization of our political leaders must stop. But will it? Does this mean Democrats will not abandon their dangerous and bogus claims that American Democracy ends with the election of Trump? Will they stop calling him a Fascist and comparing him to Hitler – calling him evil, heartless and existential danger?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In a backhanded sort of way, we now see indications that Trump’s political opponents see the political danger in carrying on with their extreme attacks. The Biden campaign has canceled its vicious attack ads on Trump for the next week or so. They are said to be evaluating the strategy of demonizing Trump with hard-hitting extreme ads in the future. They understand that the extreme and dishonest messages will not be received by rational voters in the same way after the attempted assassination,</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That is a serious blow to the Democrats&#8217; strategy since viciously demonizing Trump has evolved into their core – and arguably their only – potentially winning strategy. Unfortunately for Biden, that strategy may no longer be effective in a post-assassination attempt world calling for the reduction in such provocative language.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The dilemma for Democrats is how do they stop referring to Trump as an evil existential threat to humanity without essentially conceding that all that end-of-the-world rhetoric they have been spewing for months was nothing more than hyperbolic political bullsh*t. ; Or can they continue the provocative fearmongering messaging to an audience that is less receptive – an audience that is now calling for cooling down the more outrageous rhetoric? ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">How ironic, that suddenly the Democrats&#8217; over-the-top extreme and provocative rhetoric leveled at Trump is now being seen – in the wake of the attempted assassination of their “enemy” – as &#8230; an existential threat to democracy.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If nothing else, Crooks unintentionally provided Trump with one of the most powerful and enduring political images of recent years – up there with the flag raising over Iwo Jima, the sailor’s kiss on Broadway and President Bush in front of the collapsed World Trade Towers. ; If is the one at the top of this commentary.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It is still too early to know how all of this will impact the campaigns – although I personally see it as a boost for Trump since Crooks may have nullified the Democrats’ number one campaign message. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. Stay tuned.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So. There ‘tis.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>

Have Democrats lost their number one campaign issue?
