It ought to have already been clear to us all, long before there was yet another attempt on President Donald Trump’s life last weekend, that extreme political rhetoric — regardless of which side it’s coming from — has consequences.

The attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner wasn’t just the work of a deranged lunatic seeking attention, although he was clearly that: thanks to his manifesto, we can understand his motivations quite clearly.

The shooter indirectly referred to the president as a traitor, pedophile and rapist. While he was storming the barricade inside, at least one placard outside read “death to tyrants.”

If you’re appalled by this sort of rhetoric, regardless of who it’s directed toward, congratulations — you’re a decent human being. If you’re surprised by it, you must not have participated in a political conversation online or driven by an anti-Trump protest any time in the past 10 years. Directing this sort of unacceptable language toward the president and other elected officials is, sadly, common these days. I’ll probably get emails in response to this column engaging in the practice.

To be clear, insulting and berating people just because you disagree with them politically does not make you edgy or cool. It makes you a jerk. It’s never acceptable, regardless of who the target is or what he or she has done to earn your ire.

Moreover, as disturbed individuals internalize it and later use it as justification for their actions, it increases the chance of political violence occurring. When you say all the time that your political opponents are fascists and threats to democracy, some people take you seriously and end up taking more direct action than donating to your campaign.

One would imagine that, whenever an act of political violence occurs, we could all come together to denounce it. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case any more. This past Legislature, Democrats in the Maine Senate — including state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who’s now running for Congress — voted against a resolution honoring Charlie Kirk, the conservative speaker and activist who was assassinated last year.

This would have been the perfect time to put a bipartisan stamp of approval on honoring the life of someone lost in a brazen act of political violence, and of condemning such acts more broadly as well. Democrats, however, couldn’t bring themselves to take that step since they disagreed with Kirk politically.

Similarly, after the latest assassination attempt this past weekend, Maine Democrats running for higher office did not uniformly condemn the attack or political violence in general. Most of the Democrats running for Congress in the 2nd District did, but the gubernatorial candidates and U.S. Senate candidates all opted to act as if nothing had happened. Gov. Janet Mills didn’t put out a statement immediately, as she did after the Minnesota lawmakers and Charlie Kirk were murdered.

One could argue that the difference between those crimes and this one is that they resulted in deaths. While that’s true, Mills, at least, saw fit to condemn political violence after the attempt on Donald Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.

Similarly, one could argue that nobody has to comment on every act of political violence. In Mills’ case, she’s at least established the pattern of doing so in the past. If we’re being generous, the gubernatorial candidates and Graham Platner could get a pass for that reason, but we shouldn’t be extending that courtesy to Mills.

There’s no reason to give any of them that pass, however. While not all of us are obligated to comment on every event all the time, candidates for higher office ought to decry political violence when it occurs. That should be a basic expectation in a functioning democracy, but it appears that many Maine Democrats either don’t care enough to bother or don’t want to offend their base by doing so. 

We have a real political violence problem in this country, and we all must work together to combat it. Candidates who fail to even issue statements after political violence occurs are failing a basic test of morality. By ignoring such events when they occur, we normalize them, which makes them only more likely. Remaining silent in the face of political violence encourages acceptance: if we want to keep our democracy functioning, we’re all going to need to speak up.