"Rage rhetoric," sometimes called 'extremist rhetoric" or "rhetorical extremism," has two defining features.

First, it tends toward single-mindedness on any given issue. Second, it passionately expresses certainty about the supremacy of its perspective on the issue without submitting itself either to a reasonable test of truth or to a reasoned public debate.

Rage rhetoric is all the rage, as it were, in the toxic political world of today's America. I would argue it exists far more on the left than on the right, but to be honest, it exists on both sides of the aisle.

Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, George Washington University Law Professor, author, and Fox News Legal Analyst Jonathan Turley weighed in on the connection between rage rhetoric and the attempt to kill the former president. 

Calling the assassination attempt "not nearly as surprising as it should be," Turley wrote (emphasis, mine):

The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump left a nation stunned. But the most shocking aspect was that it was not nearly as surprising as it should have been. For months, politicians, the press and pundits have escalated reckless rhetoric in this campaign on both sides. That includes claims that Trump was set to kill democracy, unleash “death squads” and make homosexuals and reporters "disappear." 

And, unquestionably, the hood ornament of the Democrat rage rhetoric clown car is Joe Biden.

Just six days ago, on July 8, Biden called Trump "an existential threat to democracy," a phrase he repeats ad nauseam. Is it reasonable to assume that low-information crackpots across the fruited plain might be impacted by such hateful, histrionic rhetoric? Of course, it is: it has happened throughout history.

Turley took aim at Biden, as well.

President Biden has stoked this rage rhetoric. In 2022, Biden held his controversial speech before Independence Hall where he denounced Trump supporters as enemies of the people. Biden recently referenced the speech and has embraced the claims that this could be our last democratic election.

[...]

Some of us have been objecting for years that this rage rhetoric is a dangerous political pitch for the nation. While most people reject the hyperbolic claims, others take it as true. They believe that homosexuals are going to be “disappeared” as claimed on ABC’s “The View” or that the Trump "death squads" are now green lighted by a conservative Supreme Court, as claimed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

Irrational rationale follows, often leading irrational people to do irrational things. 

Is that what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when Trump was shot and two innocent people were killed? Time and additional information to come will surely tell.

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"Rage is addictive and contagious. It is also liberating," Turley argued, adding: "It allows people a sense of license to take actions that would ordinarily be viewed as repulsive."

Such was the case in 1981 when would-be-assassin John Hinckley Jr. nearly succeeded in taking the life of then-President Ronald Reagan, and it's apparently what happened at Trump's rally.

Rage Rhetoric on Steroids

Turley listed several examples of the left's absurd rage rhetoric against Trump.

As soon as Trump was elected, unhinged rage became the norm as with Kathy Griffin featuring herself holding the bloody severed head of Trump.

Just recently, another celebrity, actress Lea DeLaria, begged Biden to “blow [Trump] up” after the recent presidential immunity decision. DeLaria explained that “this is a f*****g war. This is a war now, and we are fighting for our f*****g country. And these a**holes are going to take it away. They’re going to take it away.”

For months, people have heard politicians and the press call Trump “Hitler” and the GOP a Nazi movement. Some compared stopping Trump to stopping Hitler in 1933. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) declared Trump “is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy and he has to be eliminated.” He later apologized.

Others say that Trump “will destroy the world” unless he is stopped.

Yet, ironically, the left continually warns of imminent violence from the right. Go figure.

See Also: The Trump Gunman Fired the Rifle, the Left Loaded the Gun

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"In our current age of rage," Turley mused, "politicians have sought to use ... anger and fear to rally support at any cost." What happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday was one of those costs.

Meanwhile, the rhetorical rage band plays on.