America has always been a nation of sharp divides and passionate politics. When you live in a country as large and diverse as ours, bright dividing political lines are inevitable. Your leadership matters. The stakes are always high. But we as a nation have been playing a very dangerous game for a long time, and it almost led to the assassination of a leading presidential candidate. That game is dehumanization.

At some point, our political debates were no longer about issues, policies and competing visions for the country. They became exercises in demonization. The politics of personal destruction went from being a rarity to commonplace. Why would anyone be surprised at an attempt on former President Trump's life when he's been compared to Hitler and demonized as a "threat to democracy" for nearly a decade? Think about it. Trump and his supporters have been attacked as threats to the very fabric of our nation. It was only a matter of time before someone believed that rhetoric.

We have lost the art of being able to disagree without demonizing one another. Our political default is to go into the gutter. And political leaders on both sides of the aisle have been........

© Newsweek