Last week, we witnessed a nearly successful attempt to assassinate Donald Trump — the third such attempt, and the latest in a long string of attacks on prominent (and predominantly right-wing) political figures.

What happened last week — and keeps on happening — is horrifying. But the true absurdity is that we continue to fall into the trap of interpreting the escalating mayhem as some kind of troubling, generic trend toward violence. We’re told it’s a malady that is infecting society at large, obviously a “both sides” problem, one that will disappear if we just try harder to all get along.

NO!! That’s dead wrong.

The linkage between the cause and effect of last week’s attempt on the president’s life could not be clearer. There’s no mystery here. The would-be assassin told us, in his written manifesto, exactly what he intended to do and why. In short, he was acting, quite logically, in response to the poisonous rhetoric that has flooded the zone of political commentary and that he evidently believed to be true.

In my view, last week’s attempt to take down the president and other administration leaders, along with numerous prior acts of political violence, is the direct consequence of concerted, conscious efforts by the Left for more than a decade to convince the American public that Donald Trump (and by extension, those who support him) is a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, a fascist, an authoritarian and intrinsically evil leader intent on destruction of our nation.

This hyperbolic Hitler/Nazi slander is — and has been for years — coming from the top levels of Democrat leadership. While it is constantly reinforced through internet buzz and chatter from TV talkingheads like Rachel Maddow or the ladies on “The View,” I believe the messaging most convincing to the American public has been the repeated assertions about the evils of Trump expressed by the former president, his administration, and Democrat leadership in the Senate and House.

The drumbeat is constant. The Hitler and fascism/Nazi/Gestapo versions, along with other asserted Trump character and behavioral failings tossed in for good measure, have been repeated so often and by so many — including those whose words carry significant weight — that they have become ordinary and commonplace, an unsubstantiated but continuing, crude, cartoonish association that is baked into our political landscape.

How many times did we hear Joe Biden speak of Trump and his actions as posing the greatest threat since the Civil War? That bizarre notion has taken on a life of its own, reiterated just two weeks ago by Senator Chris Murphy, who used those words explicitly to criticize the Trump administration to an international audience in Barcelona.

And recall Vice President and presidential contender Kamala Harris’s response to CNN’s Anderson Cooper when asked: “Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?” Her answer was an unequivocal “yes, I do.” A follow-up question by Cooper at that point would have been very useful, but regardless, America heard her direct response, and it may well have been a significant factor in the minds of the 75 million who voted for her in the presidential election two months later.

Where is this all going? There’s no telling, and prospects keep getting uglier. Imagine, for example, the potential massacre we dodged just last week — an armed assailant loose among 2,500 attendees at the White House Correspondence Dinner, with Secret Service in hot pursuit, shooting wildly to nail as many of his pre-selected targets (and anyone else nearby) as possible.

Intentionally or not, leftists have unleashed the furies. I suspect that their objective is regaining political power, not precipitating political violence, but their anti-Trump vendetta continues to wreak havoc. So far, they have stubbornly refused to take accountability or even to temper their poisonous rhetoric.

And the great paradox here is that the political contingent whose standard pitch is a warning to Americans about the fragility of our democratic ideals is the one putting them at risk. Actions that inspire violent overthrow of elected leadership, stacking the deck through extreme gerrymandering, fierce opposition at every turn, and rooting for failure as we take on the threat of a nuclear Iran, destroy the fabric of democracy they profess to hold dearly.

Temporizing, offering pallid explanations, or even just looking the other way won’t begin to stem the tide. For their own political future, and for the good of the country, I believe that the Democrats must reboot their messaging in its entirety.