“I’m not an animal. I’m a human being,” John Hurt famously said in his Oscar-nominated performance as the Elephant Man.

If only he were alive today, he could have reprised that classic line – only this time playing a tattooed gang leader from MS-13, perhaps one with a bloodied meat cleaver but a heart of gold.

We know MS-13 members are lovely, lovely people deserving exactly the same respect as might be accorded your grandma, your family doctor or your parish priest because liberals have been telling us so all day.

When all of our great-great-grandparents came to America they weren’t “animals,” and these people aren’t either. — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 16, 2018

Defending brutal drug cartels that rape, murder and dismember people to own the Drumpf. pic.twitter.com/pUm9LwrYlX — Allum Bokhari (@LibertarianBlue) May 17, 2018

Isn’t this great? Isn’t this just about the best thing when progressive loons make such fools of themselves in their increasing desperate attempts at anti-Trump virtue-signalling? Isn’t it exactly the kind behavior guaranteed to make Middle America go “I want nothing to do with these people” and vote in even greater numbers for Trump in 2020?

Trump likely knew exactly what he was doing when he made his “animals” remark: drawing his opponents out from under their rock with bait carefully calculated to make them show themselves at their worst.

So, in the eyes of liberals, it’s wrong to call someone an “animal” even if he belongs to the most violent and organized criminal network in the U.S. Even if he does stuff like this…

Man 'murdered by MS-13 gang' was stabbed 100 times, beheaded and had heart removed https://t.co/4ckvhsO7gd — The Independent (@Independent) November 24, 2017

Good to know. So 100 stabs, decapitation and heart removal definitely still qualifies you as a human.

But what about when MS-13 start taking off the kid gloves, stop playing nicey-nice and start becoming seriously unpleasant. What then?