Shaun McCutcheon’s Counterpoint: Assassination attempt will not be the end of leftist violence

Details are still emerging about the attempt to kill Donald Trump – about the shooter and how it was possible, and also what it says about America.

The first is obvious: Political violence has no place in America. No matter our politics, Americans should never resort to violence to settle our differences. We may have many differences, but the only answer is speech, speech, and more speech.

Except, those on the political left don’t believe that for a second, not after years of Big Tech censorship and other anti-speech activities.

For eight years, leftist political leaders and cultural elites have done nothing but stoke outrage and anger, encouraging increased lawlessness and hate. Anti-Trumpism – “Orange Man Bad” – has become a religion with crazed, fanatical adherents. The “crying liberal” meme from January 2017 personified millions of people in this country.

What happened in Butler, Pa. – with one victim dead and two critically injured – was not an isolated act. It didn’t just happen out of the blue, without rhyme or reason. It is the latest in a long list of examples of leftist violence meant to silence Republicans and tear apart America’s social fabric.

The examples are endless. The 2020 “Black Lives Matter” riots across 140 cities ended up costing the economy billions of dollars, thousands of damaged businesses, and dozens of lost lives. Radical Antifa activists claimed entire neighborhoods in once-great cities like Portland and Seattle, declaring “autonomous zones” free of police intervention and other government oversight.

And the Democrats in power refused to act, cheering them on.

Then there are the pro-Hamas protests tearing apart colleges and universities, with rioters preaching antisemitism and promoting a terrorist group at the expense of law and order. Once again, left-wing administrators refused to act.

Are we honestly surprised that a former president who has been called a Nazi, fascist and war criminal happened to be shot while giving a stump speech? Is it shocking that a man denounced as “evil” time and time again became target practice by someone who saw absolutely no consequences – and no small amount of glorification – for outrageously violent leftism? Of course not.

What happens if (when) Donald Trump wins re-election in November? Will the left sit idly by? Or, based on everything we’ve seen for the last eight years, will the left allow them to burn half of America to the ground rather than enforcing the rule of law? And afterward, it’ll be another “Russian collusion” witch hunt –or worse.

If any good-faith actors are on the left, now is the time to stand up. Now is the time to hold radicals accountable for the political violence that has reached such a boiling point rather than encouraging and rewarding bad conduct. If the “temperature” is to drop, that clearly needs to start with the anti-Trump crowd.

It’s the most basic lesson: If you punish bad action, you get less of it. If you don’t, you get more. And, if you reward it, you get way more.

Consider the debacle on our southern border, with the Biden administration refusing to take illegal immigration seriously and states subsidizing illegals with more money than we spend on our homeless and veterans. When you don’t punish unlawful activity and go so far as to encourage it to win votes, you get millions of migrants coming to America with no checks and balances. Where is their incentive to stop?

Schools that punish disruptive protesters with expulsion don’t get more disruptive protesters. Rioters don’t riot where they will be shot. Conversely, when bad behavior is encouraged by radicals in faculty or other leadership positions, the bad guys tear down more to get their way.

Today’s left has abandoned our most basic principles – personal responsibility, civil discourse and social tolerance – while ramping up the vitriol about “literal Hitler” and “words are violence” over today’s progressive mental disorder du jour. And so, we get more political violence.

The temperature isn’t too hot in America; it’s too hot on the left. Until the left takes responsibility for that and stops coddling the mob, there will only be more and more political violence – until the next horrific event.

Shaun McCutcheon is the successful plaintiff in the 2014 Supreme Court case McCutcheon v. FEC and chairman of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.