Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, the former congressman from Minnesota who gave us examples of how to treat women, has tweeted that the "Bernie Bros," that rabid group of Bernie Sanders–supporters that seem like a branch of Antifa, has tweeted that, no, they are merely passionate and as gentle as he:

"I have never seen @BernieSanders supporters being unusually mean or rude," Ellison tweeted. "Can someone send me an example of a 'Bernie Bro' being bad. Also, are we holding all candidates responsible for the behavior of some of their supporters? Waiting to hear."

Like most Democrats, progressives, and liberals, Ellison has a selective and short memory when it comes to their hypocrisy on moral issues and inciting violence. As it turns out, someone has provided Ellison with an example of a "Bernie Bro" going bad. The winner of the Ellison challenge is none other than Congressman Steve Scalise, the victim of a "Bernie Bro" running amok with guns and a list of Republicans he wanted to kill:

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise deftly shushed Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Twitter Thursday over Ellison's ignorant tweet challenging the violent nature of the Sen. Bernie Sanders-supporting "Bernie Bros." ... Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, fired back, referring to his own personal experience with a Bernie Bro that left him with a severe bullet wound in his hip. "I can think of an example," he said.

Scalise was the victim of a Democrat terrorist who, inspired by the apocalyptic rhetoric of Bernie Sanders, that millions would die and the planet was in peril because of Republican policies, shot up a Virginia baseball field full of Republican lawmakers in June of 2017. Scalise spent six weeks in the hospital fighting for his life after the Bernie Sanders–supporter decided to save humanity by shooting Scalise and other Republicans. Sen. Rand Paul does not buy the line that Sanders was not responsible for the attack, and neither do I:

"I was there at the ball field when Steven Scalise almost died from a very, very angry violent man who was incited really by rhetoric on the left," Paul said. "And this hasn't been reported enough, when he came on the field with a semi-automatic weapon firing probably close to 200 shots at us, shooting five people and almost killing Steve Scalise, he was yelling 'this is for healthcare!' He also had a list of conservative legislators, Republicans, in his pocket that he was willing to kill." "So what happens is that when Democrats say 'get up in their face,' they need to realize that there are a lot of unstable people out there," Paul continued. "There are people with anger issues, there are people who are prone to violence."

This is what happens when the likes of Eric Holder, Cory Booker, and Maxine Waters preach confrontation, intimidation, and getting in the faces of opponents. As someone once said, words have consequences, and when you preach that people will die unless something is done, people may die:

James T. Hodgkinson, who [sic] federal authorities identified as the shooter and who died in a shootout with police, was a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter and fit the Bernie Bro descriptor, which has come to encapsulate the segment of Sanders' insufferable and intolerant far-left supporters, who are mostly young, white males apparently motivated at least in part by racism and sexism. Hodgkinson's ideology was clear from his Facebook account, where he had posted things such as "Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co," and "Republicans are the Taliban of the USA."

The rhetoric of the left and of Bernie Sanders is violent and apocalyptic. If the human race is going to be extinct in 10 or 12 years due to capitalist greed, this encourages people to desperately take matters into their own hands and brush aside those who stand between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders and planetary salvation.

Typical of the left-wing media reaction was MSNBC's Joy Ann Reid, who, in an appalling example of the left's pathological hatred of anything and anyone conservative, said, in not so many words, that Rep. Steve Scalise kind of had it coming when a Bernie Sanders volunteer tried to assassinate him and his GOP colleagues as they practiced for the annual baseball game between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. As Fox News reported:

As Rep. Steve Scalise lay in his hospital bed recovering after he was shot by a maniac gunman who was hunting congressional Republicans, an MSNBC host asked whether the House Majority Whip's life-threatening injuries meant Americans had to "ignore" his political positions. Joy Ann Reid on Saturday cited Scalise's positions on ObamaCare and gay marriage [sic] as among the concerning "moral" issues she felt couldn't be overlooked despite his critical injury at the hands of a left-leaning lunatic who opened fire at a GOP baseball practice on June 14. "There's a whole country out there and a lot of people, at least in my Twitter timeline, and it's a delicate thing, because everybody is wishing the congressman well and hoping that he recovers, but Steve Scalise has a history that we've all been forced to sort of ignore on race," Reid said.

Joy Ann Reid's litany of Scalise's crimes against humanity for which he deserved being target for assassination reveal how skewed the moral compass is of those on the left:

"He did come to leadership after some controversy over attending a white nationalist event, which he says he didn't know what it was. "He also co-sponsored a bill to amend the Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. He voted for the House healthcare bill, which as you said would gut healthcare for millions of people including three million children and he cosponsored a bill to repeal the ban on semiautomatic weapons."

While the likes of Joy Ann Reid can be dismissed as a left-wing gadfly on a cable network, CBS's Scott Pelley supposedly represented mainstream media and its professed objectivity and fairness. But there he was, blaming Scalise's shooting on Scalise's own rhetoric:

Thursday evening, CBS's Scott Pelley, who officially ended his tenure as the network's Evening News anchor the following evening, told viewers that "It's time to ask whether the attack on the United States Congress Wednesday was foreseeable, predictable and, to some degree, self-inflicted." It's clear from Pelley's subsequent commentary that his answers to all three elements are "Yes." It's equally clear from the examples he supplied as support that he sees (or wants viewers to see) the problem as predominantly about the conduct of those on the right[.]

Self-inflicted? As has been noted, the Alexandria shooter woke up one morning intent on killing Republicans, not because of anything they've said or done, but because Democratic leaders, from Nancy Pelosi to Bernie Sanders to Jerry Brown to Maxine Waters, have said Republican policies, from health care to climate change, will kill people or are Nazi-inspired, setting off the leftist loons determined to save mankind.

Not surprisingly, Rep. Maxine Waters has embraced the civilized concept of mob rule:

On Saturday night, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters encouraged the type of recent protests against President Trump as seen in several Washington, DC and Virginia area restaurants, saying that she has "no sympathy" for those who serve in the administration and that the public should "turn on them" and "absolutely harass" White House officials while they are doing normal every day activities. ... Rep. Waters then went further, adding that members of the Trump administration who continue to serve and defend the president should be harangued at gas stations, restaurants, and while shopping at department stores. "They know what they are doing is wrong," said Rep. Waters. And for that, the public should ridicule and protest them every chance they get, according to the California congresswoman.

Just like with Steve Scalise, those on the left are suggesting that Sarah Sanders, Kirstjen Nielsen, and even young Baron Trump deserve the vitriol and confrontation directed at them. Their hateful end-justifies-the-means rhetoric will likely inspire someone like the loon who shot up an Alexandria baseball field to take similar action.

After all, if you believe in things like securing the border, enforcing the nation's laws, and capitalism, you have it coming.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor's Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.