It was just another routine day for the crew on "Fox and Friends," churning up the latest conspiracy theories and dissing wokeism. But the conversation soon turned to the recent deadly stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, N.C., by a mentally ill homeless man.

What are we going to do about mentally ill homeless people? someone asked. Brian Kilmeade, one of the hosts, had a ready answer. "Just kill 'em," he said. Though Kilmeade later apologized for the remark, it exemplified the kind of extreme, violent rhetoric that now characterizes much of American political life.

After the shooting death of MAGA organizer Charlie Kirk, Fox hero Donald Trump said, "We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell of them." Where one might find these radical left lunatics is anybody's guess. If Trump knew, likely he would have sicced ICE and the National Guard on them by now.

Maybe Trump didn't invent violent political rhetoric, but he likes to use it. He is the first U.S. president who in public statements expressed sympathy and support for right-wing supremacists, thereby pulling them into mainstream politics. Trump also pardoned people who engaged in violence against the police and has been called out by members of his own party for his rhetoric. His appetite for sending troops into American cities is unprecedented, and in most cases unwanted, and is itself a recipe for potential violence.

He also imagines leftist "terror networks" hiding behind every door. His claim that political violence stems largely from the far left is inaccurate, but he's glad to leverage it to suppress opposition and justify criminalizing political foes. Home-grown domestic terror and violence is thriving, a lot of it fueled by social media, which........

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