We all know what needs to happen for the nation to dial down the temperature of our political discourse—Democrats need to chill. Sadly, that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.
Why would it? Before Saturday night’s foiled attack at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, there were at least two known assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, along with an armed invasion of the grounds of his club at Mar-a-Lago that led to the death of the armed intruder, and one successful assassination attempt that took the life of Charlie Kirk—all within the last two years.
Did the murder of Charlie Kirk calm down the Left? No, much of the Left upped the ante. People on college campuses gloated, saying Charlie deserved to die, and the Left’s leadership failed to call out this behavior. Their silence sent a strong signal—it gave permission for such rhetoric to continue, in other places and against other targets.
There were protesters outside the White House Correspondents Association dinner Saturday night, with some holding signs that read “Death to tyrants.” I don’t believe it is at all a stretch to imagine those protesters would have been cheering if the gunman had been successful Saturday night.
Americans on the Left must stop this kind of hatred on their side of the aisle. It is tearing our country apart.
In the organization I lead, we do our absolute best not to use the word “enemy” when referring to our political opposition. (It is possible the word has slipped through on social media on rare occasions, but if it has, it was a mistake.) As a policy, we train our employees and consultants that the word “enemy” is reserved for the people outside of this country who wish us dead.
We cannot dehumanize our fellow Americans. We live in communities together. We can have political disagreements and still agree that we all love and want the best for the country.
This week, many conservatives and Trump supporters are asking whether that assumption about our political opposition holds true any longer: Do they want the best for our country despite disagreements, or do they actually wish those who disagree with them were dead?
Many Democrat leaders despise Trump so much that they spew hatred constantly. They should take a long look in the mirror and reflect on what can be done to help our country heal. House Minority Leader Hakeem “Maximum Warfare” Jeffries, who just last week spoke of competition with Republicans as if it were World War III, is a prime offender, but there are many others.
They claim to care about “democracy,” yet they do not respect election outcomes enough to allow the majority to govern. They “resist” at every single turn. They use the language of their base, blindly repeating the phrase “no kings.”
If we truly had a “king” in this country, the current battle over the Department of Homeland Security’s funding would not exist; the “king” would order the funding, and that would be that.
If we had a “king,” there would be no reason for Americans like me to crisscross this country working to get the SAVE America Act, a simple, common-sense piece of legislation whose components have more than 80% approval, passed.
Democrats should prove to Americans that they really care about representative democracy, drop their opposition, and join Republicans in passing the SAVE America Act
Finally—and most importantly—leading Democrats need to call out the hateful language and the language that calls for death to their fellow Americans. They need to remind their base that we live in the greatest country there has ever been, and while we may have disagreements with people about legislative direction, we can all agree to live peacefully in this country.
If people are championing the death of an insurance company CEO, or calling for death to “tyrants,” or using explicitly hate-filled speech, Democrats should not invite those people on the campaign trail and should not amplify those voices. Instead, they should call this behavior out and draw a line in concrete making clear that they will not tolerate it in their party.
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