We remember that horrific morning on a baseball diamond in Alexandria when a left-wing extremist opened fire on members of Congress, nearly taking the life of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. That attack was not some abstract political spat — it was an attempt to murder elected officials simply because of their party, and it left scars on a nation that too often pretends facts like that are “both sides.”

So when Steve Scalise, a man who survived that political assassination attempt, sits down and calls out violent rhetoric, Americans ought to listen. In an exclusive Blaze interview he reminded the country what real political violence looks like and warned that language matters when it encourages hatred and harm. Scalise’s words carry weight because he lived through the nightmare many on the left cavalierly dismiss.

Now another story has lit the fuse of national alarm: private text messages from Virginia Democrat Jay Jones surfaced in which he fantasized about putting “two bullets” into a political rival and even compared that target to Hitler and Pol Pot. Those are not rhetorical flourishes; they are vivid, personal fantasies of violence aimed at a named public official, and they deserve the condemnation of every decent person in public life.

Yet the predictable defense squad on the left has circled the wagons, treating grotesque threats as mere political theater or old, out-of-context messages that shouldn’t disqualify a candidate for the commonwealth’s top law-enforcement post. The reluctance of prominent Democrats to demand accountability reveals a corrosive double standard: violent language is suddenly forgivable if it advances a partisan agenda. Voters should judge both the words and the people willing to excuse them.

This isn’t abstract moralizing — it’s about public safety. We saw in 2017 how rhetoric can break through into real bloodshed; ordinary citizens and their representatives were shot on that field, and only quick action and sheer luck prevented a massacre. When a man who survived an assassination attempt warns that certain strains of left-wing rhetoric are toxic, conservatives and moderates alike should take note and act.

Meanwhile, the media and establishment pundits try to sanitize or minimize stories that make Democrats look reckless, all while amplifying minor missteps from conservative grassroots. That selective outrage is not journalism — it’s protection racketeering for a political class that believes its own rules don’t apply. Americans deserve an even-handed press, but until we get one, voters must treat the silence and equivocation from the left as a story in itself.

The stakes are simple: people who fantasize about murder should not be entrusted with power, especially not the power of enforcing the law. Elected leaders who hesitate to denounce that kind of rhetoric are making a moral choice — and that choice tells voters where their priorities lie. It’s a basic test of character and a gut-check the electorate cannot ignore.

Hardworking Americans want safety, decency, and accountability, not partisan cover-ups and performative apologies. If the left wants respect and votes, it should earn them by standing against violent fantasies and the kind of rage that led a man to open fire on elected officials in 2017. Until then, conservatives will keep fighting for law and order, for the sanctity of human life, and for a politics that condemns violence no matter which tribe it comes from.