The assassination of Charlie Kirk was so brazen, calculated, and horrific that Americans are demanding accountability. The extreme leftist overheated political rhetoric and primal penchant for violence can no longer be tolerated; it must be stopped. It’s way beyond simple disagreements about ideology and policies. Whenever leftists don’t get their way, they demonize their opponents as bigots, racists, or NAZIs. They burn and loot businesses and even whole cities; they incite widespread riots. And too often, they assault and even murder anyone that dares speak out. They pursue anarchy or tyranny as either allows them to enforce censorship by intimidation or violence.

The American left has become wholly Machiavellian—to them the ends justify the means. According to Real Clear Polling earlier this year, the Network Contagion Research Institute, along with Rutgers University, found that 55% of self-identified left-of-center respondents said that it was at least somewhat justified to murder President Trump. Forty-eight percent said the same of Elon Musk, and 40% of respondents, including 59.6% of left-of-center respondents, said it was at least somewhat acceptable to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest. The Democrat Party has lost control of its extreme leftist wing. They condone and even endorse political violence.

Against this open bloodlust for conservatives and Republicans, Democrats plead for unity and claim with bogus studies that both sides are prone to violence. The experience of the past few decades has been utterly dominated by leftist violence. The telltale is that there have been no riots in reaction to Kirk’s cold-blooded murder, but ample cases of leftists’ ghoulish celebrations of his brutal murder. As soulless leftists cruelly mock Kirk’s assassination, Democrats blame the right for saying things that offend their tender liberal sensibilities, so we should tone down our demands for accountability and silence our opinions. They continue to deny free speech and threaten us for speaking out. Their pleas are weak excuses to continue their carnage.

Democrats know their extremists have crossed a line, but they can’t or don’t want to rein in their radicals reigning terror on society. It’s raw power and they covet it; they need it to have influence. Leftist ideas and policies fail at the ballot box and in practice, so they must hold the American public hostage with constant threats of violence or defraud them with election cheating.

Democrats refuse to debate ideas. They shout down or even assault dissenting voices or they just riot. With the intense backlash after Kirk’s murder pressuring Democrats to check their violent screeds, they claim concern for civil political discourse, but they don’t mean it. They still blame conservatives for just speaking while leftists keep shooting.

If Democrats do attempt any debate, they always want to start by establishing false premises about conservative concerns and positions. They misrepresent every conservative idea. If you support securing the border and stopping illegal immigration, you’re a bigot. If you support law and order, you’re a racist. If you support Biblical morality, you’re a homophobe. These smears are intended to preempt any debate and silence conservative voices, but they must lie about conservatives to win any argument.

The only thing Democrats loath more than the First Amendment is the Second Amendment. They conflate the genuine concern for security and self-defense with affinity for guns and violence, but the morbid irony is conservatives condemn political violence and liberals justify it. Democrats scream we need gun control, and the violence will stop, but blue cities with the strictest gun control laws have the most gun violence. Consider their sinister strategy. Democrats are constantly insisting law abiding citizens be disarmed and in the next breath refuse to prosecute criminals. Their policies are intended to leave Americans vulnerable and thereby more easily oppressed.

Charlie Kirk has only just been buried, and Democrats are not only dancing on his grave but persist in fomenting violence by continuing unabated maligning conservatives and Republicans as fascists, who they regularly claim should be eradicated. Former VP Kamala Harris just this week said Democrats must “fight fire with fire.” California Governor Gavin Newsom keeps prodding Democrats to fight back. Left-wing streamer Steve Bonnell, AKA “Destiny” came right out and called for conservatives to be killed more often so they will be afraid to attend events or speak out!

Clearly a disturbing declaration but Democrats didn’t rush to condemn or disavow Destiny’s appeal for more violence. The extreme left wing of the Democrat Party advocates violence, but worse the rest of the party just acquiesces to it. And worse still, the rest of the country has become inured to leftist violence tendencies, and we have come to expect it and sadly just live with it.

Unfortunately, we can no longer wait on Democrats to clean their house, because they are literally killing us. Long overdue, President Trump thankfully has taken a stand and declared ANTIFA a terrorist organization. They have been committing and inciting violence for decades, so it’s ridiculous the FBI doesn’t know who has been coordinating their nationwide mayhem and funding their vicious violent antics.

The political violence plaguing our nation is no longer a partisan problem. It’s spiritual warfare; it’s good versus evil. Although too few and too timid, there are surely some Democrats that reject political violence, who deserve support, but they aren’t able to perform the much-needed exorcism on their party. And Republicans can’t do it. Average Americans must reject and further shun these rabid radicals at every turn. The virulent strain of violent socialism infecting the Democrat Party must be ridiculed and ostracized until it’s isolated into oblivion.

The American electorate has the same problem as the Israelis. Israel cannot coexist with Hamas because they are dedicated to Israel’s annihilation. American voters with traditional values that cherish our Constitutional Republic cannot coexist with Socialist Democrats because they are committed to dismantling our Constitutional Republic. Like you cannot dine with cannibals because you are ultimately on the menu; you can’t negotiate with leftist terrorists. They must be driven out of the American body politic.

“The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion” (Psalm 11:5).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.