"Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. That was true before an assassination attempt was foiled at his golf course Sunday, and it remains true after. Political violence in general, and assassinating presidential candidates specifically, also poses risks to democracy.
There is no contradiction between these ideas whatsoever. Yet Trump’s supporters have responded to both attempts on his life by muddying the waters, exploiting the near-tragedies with cynical efforts to redefine critiques of Trump’s authoritarian inclinations as violent provocation.
[…]
There is a more serious conceptual problem with the argument that denouncing Trump as a threat to democracy inspired violence: It ignores the truth or falsity of the matter. Taken at face value, the argument implies that we cannot say a presidential candidate threatens democracy even if he plainly does. A party could nominate a candidate who openly promises to end elections and imprison all his critics, and the opposing party would be prevented from describing this candidate as a threat to democracy for fear of inspiring assassination attempts...”
Opposing political violence does not mean ignoring authoritarianism.
nymag.com
Republicans need to stop lying that appropriate, factual, warranted criticism of Trump is somehow ‘inciting’ violence against Trump.