By Erick Erickson

It was a terrible thing that happened and that it happened during a moment of bipartisan levity makes it all the more tragic.

But this was easily predictable and foreseeable and it will not be the last time this happens.

For the last several months, the political left in this country has amped up the rhetoric to an unprecedented degree and when anyone confronts them with it they engage in whataboutisms over various Republican statements about Barack Obama.

They have spread a fable that Donald Trump has collaborated with the Russians to steal the election. On top of that fable they have spread lies that the GOP is covering up that election theft. With the President walking away from the Paris Accord, Democrats and the political left have tried to mainstream the belief that the GOP wants to kill off Americans and destroy the world. Well respected intellectuals among the left have called the GOP a criminal enterprise and worse.

Political activists maintain the GOP is going to kill people by repealing Obamacare. They maintain the GOP wants to put black people back in chains. They maintain the GOP wants to see the planet uninhabitable.

This is the rhetoric used to keep the Democrat base mobilized. Many of the Democrats who say these things do not actually believe them. But there are those of unstable mind who do and one of those today decided he would take matters into his own hands.

I have written twice since the election that this was going to happen. It makes me no prophet. It was foreseeable. Democrats tried to blame Sarah Palin for the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords because of Palin’s use of the word “target” on the congressional district of Gabby Giffords, despite that being a long time political term. They tried to blame the GOP for what turned out to be a genuine nut job who did not have a real political stance.

Of course we have a real nut job here too. But based on eye witness accounts we have a nut job with the presence of mind to ask if it was Democrats or Republicans on the field because he wanted to kill as many Republicans as possible.

And this will not be the last time. Already, there are people online gloating about the GOP comeuppance over gun control. There are prominent partisans on social media making false claims about Virginia gun laws. There are even the assortment of nutters who think the GOP is getting what they deserve.

There will always be nuts. There will always be conspiracy theorists. Just as the GOP should stop coddling people like Alex Jones who fuels deranged people on the right and use of the word “subhuman” should be barred from discussions about political opponents, the Democrat leaders in Washington and their political allies should stop claiming the GOP wants everyone to die and the world to be a cesspool. They know it is not true, but today someone who believed them decided to take action.