Americans hardly needed an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump to realize that our civil society is fraying.

Last weekend’s horrific shooting feels in many ways like the logical progression of a political culture that has been growing increasingly extreme for years.

The former president himself has been a prominent purveyor of rhetoric that often encourages or fantasizes about violence against his political foes. This is, after all, the same Trump whose words have been cited over 50 times by men and women facing criminal charges for violence and assault. It’s the same Trump who, according to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, once asked why police couldn’t simply gun down demonstrators protesting the murder of George Floyd. In fact, back in 2022 Axios detailed 10 distinct incidents where Trump praised or excused political violence.

The sad reality of our politics in 2024 is that a growing number of Americans now agree with Trump’s view — and not all of those radicalized partisans support the president or his party. It isn’t clear that our political leaders truly appreciate the scope of this threat to the democratic order.

Of course,........

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