“The Republican Party is mainstreaming menace as a political tool.”

The above line, a distillation of observations of historians, is from a New York Times article published online last evening about the rise of violence, threats of violence, and encouragement of violence that Republicans have increasingly directed at their opponents, even those who are members of their own party. Trump, Trump-emulating politicians, and propagandist right-wing media, most notably Fox News, have whipped a large segment of the population into a frenzy of hatred and vengefulness. It’s a very disturbing phenomenon that, if it continues to escalate, will almost certainly lead to tragedy.