According to this view, The Crazy Line separates their rhetoric from violent behavior. Their rhetoric isn’t crazy. Crazy is something that needs to be added to make the leap from their sane and rational rhetoric to violent behavior.

But this view doesn’t hold up to analysis. If one looks at the rhetoric of these right-wing politicians and pundits, one sees that the crazy is already there, and the leap from the rhetoric to violence requires no additional crazy, but can be made using logic and rational thinking. The politicians and pundits have already done the heavy lifting; they’ve already crossed The Crazy Line. Walking the additional distance from the rhetoric to violent action is easy. Going that extra distance may even be required by logic.

What is a rational, reasonable response if you are a patriotic citizen who believes that America is under attack from within, and that Maoist forces are on the verge of destroying your way of life and replacing it with some socialist nightmare? What do you do if you are told your country is on the verge of totalitarianism, that the freedoms you have enjoyed as a birthright are about to be taken away from you, the US Constitution nullified, and your rights abrogated?

What is a rational, reasonable response if the institutions of democracy have been compromised? What can you do when the government is filled with treasonous conspirators who disdain established traditions and rules and cram oppressive legislation down your throat? What can you do when your president’s loyalty to the country is questionable and he is clearly sympathetic to foreign enemies who want to destroy America? What can you do when the courts are packed with ideological schemers bent on pushing a radical agenda? What can you do when the government no longer listens to the people? What choices do you have?

Do you do nothing while you and your children are reduced to slavery? Surely you must act. Surely you must stand up and demand things be made right. But what use is that when government no longer listens to the will of the people? What can you do when America’s sacred political institutions have been hijacked by America’s enemies?

You must do something. You have a responsibility to do something. Have past generations not risen up in arms to defend their freedom? Have they not been willing to kill and die to preserve our way of life? If our nation is facing an existential threat from within, then doesn’t every freedom-loving, patriotic American citizen have a responsibility to fight back?

If you accept all these premises, then violent insurrection is the logical, natural, patriotic, and right thing to do. It’s time to get your gun and take a stand. It’s time to do something about the enemies of America, before they destroy everything we hold dear. There’s nothing crazy about drawing that conclusion.

It’s the premises that are crazy in the first place. All of these wild, baseless, idiotic claims about the Democrats being hell-bent on destroying our country and our way of life – claims made not because the claimant believes them, but because he is a cynical prick who derives some political or financial benefit from other, stupider people believing them – are the source of the crazy. No additional crazy is required.

No, Mr. Pundit and Ms. Politician, you’ve already crossed The Crazy Line. Anybody who has followed you across that line can now logically and rationally conclude that they must act bravely and decisively for the sake of the country. The leap from your rhetoric to violent action is a rational leap, perhaps a required leap for any true American.

You brought the crazy with you on your long, lucrative trip to the frontier of reality; it isn’t a missing ingredient necessary to transform your rational words into bloody violence. All that’s required for the transition to violent behavior is to listen carefully to what you’re saying, believe that it is true, and muster a little courage.

So don’t be too sure that if something horrible happens, you will not be held accountable in a court of law. You brought the crazy, you own it.