For the ninety seconds when members of the media were diving under tables at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner, watching as politicians and cabinet members were yanked from the room by security, you have to wonder how many had the honest thought: did we do this?<\/p>\n
The repeated media normalization of assassination fantasies on the American left hasn\u2019t been a quiet trend. A decade after Kathy Griffin posed with Donald Trump\u2019s severed head, their attitude is the same as Steve Schmidt\u2019s in the immediate aftermath of this latest attempt: to the extent anyone is to blame for repeated attempts at Trump\u2019s assassination, it\u2019s the man himself \u2014 and then maybe his supporters for having the audacity to elect Orange Hitler twice.<\/p>\n
Remember the Rutgers study that found more than half of Left-of-center respondents said it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Donald Trump? When the \u201cradical Left\u201d describes such a vast portion of the Democratic electorate on the question \u201cshould the president be unalived,\u201d believe them.<\/p>\n
The legacy media has declared who they want dead. They continue to platform the Left\u2019s voices who urge his death. They rely on the violent Left\u2019s bark being worse than their bite \u2014 even as those who bay for blood continually show their eagerness for the exact outcome that motivates the president\u2019s would-be murderers.<\/p>\n
Hasan Piker\u2019s call to murder capitalists and drench the streets with their blood gets the New York Times and Conde Nast imprimatur. \u201cYour cool murderous communist message is such a song of the summer vibe, tell me more, lol.\u201d That casual endorsement of bloodshed isn\u2019t fringe \u2014 it\u2019s increasingly mainstream by the same people who claim democracy dies in darkness. Well, it almost died in the sun in Butler and West Palm and the bowels of the Washington Hilton. How many more cracks does the media want their psychotic fellow travelers to take at this? How long will they stand by Senate Democrats who have blocked security funding in the midst of war and blatant terror threats? Or should we just get used to a political reality where we refuse to treat violent rhetoric as the incitement it is?<\/p>\n
The WHCD attack was not an isolated incident of random violence. It was the predictable outcome of years of rhetoric, glorified in newsrooms, popularized on campuses, featured on podcasts, and given serious, intoned consideration in the pages of glossy magazines by the same people who claim to be standing against hate. The Left\u2019s open celebration of political murder did this, and it will continue to do it, fueled by a legacy media that knows a click is a click, no matter the motivation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n