It's a long way between making annoying phone calls to a public official regarding matters within the scope of their responsibilities to making death threats toward them or any kind of reference to their family or employment, or protesting their homes and terrifying their children. ("Are the mean people coming back?" asked one little girl of her mother.)
If these criminals aren't stopped in their tracks early on, it leads to an escalation which can result in actions like the attack on the Capitol on January 6.
This insanity has resulted in doctors who provide abortions being killed -- one as he was serving as an usher at his church. It also has precipitated bombings of several clinics.
What concerns me most is the constant drumbeat from the Right -- media, pundits and Repug politicans alike -- that the election was stolen and therefore Biden is an illegitimate president and should be removed, by force if necessary. That turns him from being a human being into being a target, setting up the belief by some that they have the duty to remove him from office by any means possible. Trump calls it a "Second Amendment solution," which is tacit approval for use of violence. And while the assassination of JFK, RFK and MLK can be attributed to a lone actor, it's a lot easier for a mob to act, since they are feeding off each other's energy. As K said in "Men in Black": "A Person Is Smart; People Are Dumb"
Death threats went up tenfold when Obama was president, and his only sin was "presidenting while black." There was little challenge to his legitimacy -- and no suggestion that the "patriotic" thing to do would be to remove him from office by any means possible. "We love you," wasn't just something blurted out spontaneously; it was a clarion call to T****'s followers to "stand back and stand by."
January 6th was a dress rehearsal.
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