A lot of electrons have been expended commenting on Trump’s propensity for encouraging violence at his events. My personal view is that he does this because he’s an out of touch plutocrat who has never worked a single day in his life and who thinks this is the way the lesser orders behave. Regardless of his motives it is pretty obvious that his more rabid followers have taken his Henry II imitation to heart and set about ridding their king of meddlesome protesters.

Is this bigger than Trump. Does it portend a new political era of Weimar-esque streetfighting? Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall thinks so:

Foreshadowing of Trump era of US politics https://t.co/CSWZkzjE0V — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 18, 2016

In fact, Donald Trump’s influence has been so pernicious that it has infected the Democrat party. From the story Marshall refers to in his tweet:

The daughter of an Illinois state representative, as well as a campaign volunteer, are both facing charges after allegedly attacking the lawmaker’s opponent with a staple gun earlier this month, The Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday. Jessica Soto, the daughter of state Rep. Cynthia Soto (D), and Bradley Fichter allegedly attacked failed House candidate Robert Zwolinksi outside his campaign office on March 6, according to the report. Zwolinski told the newspaper that Fichter held Zwolinski down while Soto stapled his head and screamed “this isn’t your territory.” Police say the two assailants also hit Zwolinski with a bottle, according to the report.

Politics is a contact sport. Apparently that's literally the case. pic.twitter.com/wIlFIP366W — Robert Zwolinski (@BobZ_Chicago4th) March 7, 2016

Personally, I think Josh Marshall is full of s***, so much so that his eyes are a liquid brown. Violence in Democrat politics is about as American as Al Sharpton and a weekend in Chicago. The idea that Trump has influenced Democrats in Illinois to staple-gun each others foreheads is ludicrous. But then they are Democrats and not really known for having original ideas.