None of this excuses Trump's rhetoric, but it does make his Democratic accusers hypocrites. When you traffic for decades in hateful, violent political rhetoric, you have lost the moral authority to effectively condemn others for doing so. Indeed, Democrats arguably bear much of the blame for creating Trump. One of the reasons voters rallied behind Trump is precisely because, after years of seeing their standard-bearers act like punching bags, Trump presented himself as a counterpuncher who isn't afraid to fight back and give as good as he gets. The results are ugly. Trump is wrong to call the media the "enemy of the people" and to celebrate a congressman body-slamming a reporter, and the host of other terrible things he has said. But Democrats were dragging us into the political gutter long before Trump came along. If they think Americans elected a Frankenstein's monster, they are Dr. Frankenstein.