“This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled [...] by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”

In a speech at the 2017 Golden Globes, actress Meryl Streep foreshadowed the consequences of then President-elect Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric, who, as a candidate on the campaign trail, had mocked a disabled reporter, fuels fear of foreigners, and antagonizes the press.

“Disrespect invites disrespect,” she said. “Violence incites violence.”

Many have said Trump is responsible for the violence that has occurred in the United States since his election. While blame for the violent tragedies that continue to dishearten our country does not rest solely on Trump’s shoulders, Streep was right about hatred running rampant in this administration. This is an age when neo-Nazis march proudly on college campuses, when potential explosive devices are mailed to critics of the president by a suspect known as "the MAGA bomber," when gunmen open fire on synagogues. In a country founded on ideals of freedom of speech and religion, Americans are still violently targeted for their core values and beliefs.

This version of ourselves — in which the response to such violence by those in power appears to equal a rolling of the eyes — is unacceptable. Trump’s documented and repeated calls for violence are being answered, and once again, America is proving incapable of learning from the past. Once again, we are regressing. And when the world is not sending us prayers after another instance of mass violence, it is — as the president loves to remind us — laughing at us.

Nearly two years ago now, I wept through the rest of the Golden Globes after Streep’s speech, and I frequently turn to her words for guidance. I am fascinated by how the capacity to empathize kept Streep attuned to the moral direction of the nation. She presented an idea that Trump dismisses: Words matter.

There is no way to determine whether any act of political violence since January 2017 has occurred as a direct result of Trump’s behavior (which includes encouraging his rallygoers to “knock the crap out of” protesters in February 2016). But the MAGA bomber’s targets were people and entities Trump has encouraged his base to hate. CNN offices in New York were evacuated due to an intercepted bomb; Trump has continuously spoken out against CNN, and in July 2017, he tweeted an edited video of himself wrestling with a man with the network’s logo imposed over his face.

While correlation does not imply causation, the parallels between Trump’s words and the violent actions that follow are uncanny. Pretending the president is not partially responsible for America’s recent tragedies would be naive, even though he has shifted blame to the “Fake News Media.” The “great anger in our Country,” he tweeted [just two days after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting], has been caused by the “true Enemy of the People.” It’s classic Trumpian “whataboutism,” the president’s version of the blame game, where fingers point at everyone and everything but himself. We simply have to connect the dots.

Dovetailing with Trump’s inauguration, anti-Semitic acts rose nearly 60% in 2017 compared to 2016, with the largest increase taking place during the first three months of the year. And in 2016, Trump’s campaign had aired an ad littered with what some perceived as subliminal anti-Semitic messages attacking members of the “political establishment,” including prominent figures of the Jewish faith, such as Janet Yellen, Lloyd Blankfein, and political activist George Soros.