[mrguyorama]

If you think "threat to our democracy" rhetoric started "from the left" in 2016, you should go lookup what Fox News has been saying for decades.

War on christmas? War on Christianity? Obama isn't even a real american so he is an illegitimate president? "They're coming for our children"? Christ that one regularly gets drag story time cleared out due to violent threats. How dare someone read a book to a child while wearing a dress.

Or maybe you forget the decades of bombing abortion clinics?

You know we USED to have violent hard left organizations like the Black Panthers and Weather Underground. Now the right has to wave vaguely at "auntie fa", a "group" as real as "anonymous".

[remarkEon]

Honestly? I think the difference here is that Bill O'Reilly saying a bunch of BS on his TV show is pretty starkly different from the "paper of record" and the sitting President telling voters that "if this other guy wins the election democracy ends". You can see the difference in authority of voice here, right? That's a rhetorical framing that justifies a lot of extreme action. Arguably, it justifies preventing Trump from assuming office if he wins again in November. Is this what people really believe? I don't think so, because if it was people in government would've celebrated the assassination attempt.