In 2013, the left went nuts over a rodeo clown.

The rodeo clown was performing at the Missouri State Fair. He had the awful temerity to wear a mask of then President Obama. We're going to stomp Obama now, an announcer said, Hey, I know I'm a clown, the rodeo clown replied. He's just running around acting like one. Doesn't know he is one. The media quoted a bystander who compared the act to a KKK rally. The lieutenant governor of the state condemned the act, as did one of the senators.

The rodeo clown was fired, even though he dressed up as other presidents in the past and on the exact same routine. Fast forward four years. On Tuesday, TMZ posted photos of comedian Kathy Griffin who has helped host CNN's New Year's Eve coverage for a decade, holding a mock-up of president's severed head covered in blood. Griffin has a long record of anti-Trump sentiment, of course. In February, she told MSNBC's Chris Matthews, quote, I'm a big resistor, and I don't believe in compromise with this president. I also think he's crazy. I think he's mentally ill. He's also an idiot. But this photo shoot crossed a rather obvious line. It celebrated Trump's perspective

murder. Imagine if anyone on the right had done something similar with Obama. The outcry

would have been deafening. Yet the same people who ask for trigger warnings for material

that might offend anyone, the same people who believe there's a rape culture that pervades

America, the same people who say President Trump has incentivized a culture of political

violence across the land,

many of them are silent about Griffin's antics. Why? Because political violence is no longer taboo in the U.S. It's just another tactic to utilize when useful and denigrate when others engaged in it.

That sentiment expresses itself on both sides of the political aisle. When Montana House candidate

Greg Gianforte allegedly body slammed a reporter,

prominent conservatives, including talk show host Laura Ingram, demeaned his victim as a wuss,

and champion Gianforte as a sort of stalwart man's man. When leftists attack Trump rallies during

the 2016 election cycle, the media attempted to paint them as the defenders of the common good

against Trump himself. The overused phrase cycle of violence

is often used by the press to refer to situations in which an aggressor acts violently and somebody

defends him. But we've entered an actual cycle in political violent rhetoric, whereby the

vileness of the left provokes a direct response from the right and vice versa, and it's getting

worse. If you spend all day proclaiming that you're in a civil war with other Americans, that you're

part of a resistance, it's only a matter of time until you become willing to look the other way at violence itself. If Americans aren't your brothers and sisters, if we disagree, then they will quickly become your enemies. Kathy Griffin may think it's hilarious to hold up a bloody head of the president of the United States, but she's tearing away at the social fabric far more than President Trump is.

And those who backed her play are helping provoke their enemies to hold up a bloody head of the president of the United States, but she's tearing away at the social fabric far more than President Trump is.

And those who backed her play are helping provoke their enemies to respond in kind.

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