According to some radical Left Democrats, speech can equate to violence. Evidently, it’s true: Speech might lead to actual violence, usually from leftists, as in the North Dakota murder of a Republican teen.

Democrats make their “speech equals violence” claim for two reasons. The first is to justify their calls for the censorship of views and opinions with which they disagree. The conflation of speech with physical violence is an attempt to deny that their position actually violates the First Amendment. Leftists don’t want to have to do the hard work of defending their views, so they play rhetorical games by claiming that anyone who opposes them is being violent. It’s a bully tactic.

The second reason is to justify physical violence against individuals who espouse “objectionable” views and opinions. Recall the radical Left’s slogan a couple of years back to “punch a Nazi,” as if this were a justified and appropriate response to “bigots” and “racists.” The mainstream media took little notice of it, even as violent protests and riots led by antifa agitators rocked the city of Portland, Oregon, night after night for months on end. This politically motivated violence — for that is exactly what it was — was somehow not significant enough.

Meanwhile, Democrat politicians have increasingly played up the “threat” of white supremacy and right-wing violence. Back in 2011, when Arizona Democrat Representative Gabby Giffords was shot by a mentally unstable man, Democrats and their Leftmedia cohorts ridiculously asserted that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was culpable due to a political graphic she had shared that contained target sights to indicate important political races in the country that Republicans needed to focus on winning. There was absolutely no evidence to suggest that the assailant had even seen the graphic, let alone that he was “radicalized” by it.

Yet years later, when House Republicans were targeted and shot during practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game, the Leftmedia sought to avoid any connection with the perpetrator’s expressed anti-Republican political views. Why? It didn’t fit the Democrat narrative that only those on the Right can be radicalized into political violence.

Recently, Joe Biden has taken this narrative into overdrive. Stripping away any nuance, he declared that “MAGA Republicans pose a clear and present danger” to America. Biden claimed, without evidence: “For a long time, we’ve reassured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it’s not.” He then asserted, “MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards,” adding that America is in “a battle for the soul of the nation.”

A recent killing in North Dakota once again turns the Democrat Party’s claims on their head. A 41-year-old man admitted to intentionally running over and killing 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson with his vehicle following a political argument between them. The man stated that his reason for doing so was that Ellingson belonged to a “Republican extremist” group, and he thought he was calling his group to come and “get him.” Ellingson was in fact calling his mother, as he was fleeing to say that he was being chased.

To make matters worse, after the perpetrator was arrested and charged with criminal vehicular homicide and before he posted $50,000 bail, he complained that he didn’t understand the charges and he cried out for mercy. “I have a job, a life, and a house, and things that I don’t exactly want to see go by the wayside, family that are very important to me,” he complained.

One wonders how he could be so obtuse as to not apply those same concerns to the young man he had just killed. While it remains to be determined if there are any mental issues at play, the sheer disregard for Ellingson is troubling. Did this man believe that since Ellingson was supposedly a member of a “Republican extremist” group that it was acceptable or even justifiable to attack him? Have Democrats all the way up to Biden so vilified Republicans as a leading threat to the country that conservatives are literally seen as the enemy by some on the Left?

This is the danger of divisive rhetoric that disingenuously labels political opponents, and all for the sake of gaining political power. The irony is that this tactic is exactly the opposite of promoting a fair democratic system. Who are the real threats to the American Republic?