Well, you'd think that violence, physical attacks, and threats in our political system would shock all of us. But at this point, unfortunately, nobody is really surprised. It almost seems normal.

It was just last year that a progressive activist tried to murder an entire field of Republican lawmakers practicing baseball. He gravely wounded one of them. Strangely, you didn't hear calls for gun control in the days after that happened.

And at this point, we've practically forgotten it ever happened at all. And so the cycle has accelerated. Using force against Republican officeholders and conservatives now seems like a feature of our political landscape.

So what is this really about? Suddenly, this kind of rage is everywhere. You've seen the videotape of protestors now for the past several months. But who exactly is it aimed at? What is the point?

Well, Republicans, obviously, are the focus of most of it, conservatives, and more generally, anyone else who dissents from the one true faith of cultural leftism. But really the target is the country itself.

The left is angry at America. They say so all the time. This is not the Democratic Party you grew up in or that you remember if you're over 30.

That party may have stood for some bad ideas, and it did, but there was never really a question about its fundamental loyalty to America or the people who live here.

The party of FDR and LBJ, even of Bill Clinton, was basically a patriotic party. It was an American party. Not anymore.

In 2018, anyone who considers America a distinct physical place with meaningful borders and its own history and traditions and language and culture and values won't feel comfortable in the Democratic Party. Indeed, may not even be allowed in that party.

To modern Democrats, the leaders of the party, America is an economy with land attached. It's a massive private equity scheme from which they are benefiting. Its people are interchangeable human widgets to be discarded and replaced when their usefulness expires.

Was it always this way? Was this always what America was like, you might ask? Shut up, they'll explain. Before Obama got elected, America was truly a horrible place, a nightmare. Remember when New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo said this recently:

“We're not going to make America great again. It was never that great.”

It was never that great, said the guy who inherited his job from his dad. Cuomo's remarks got some coverage on this channel but they were hardly unusual for Cuomo's party.

Before she founded the #MeSioux movement, Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren spent a lot of time telling audiences what an awful country this is. Here's one example of what she’s said: “The hard truth and then our criminal justice system, it's racist. … When I say our system, I mean all the way, I mean front to back.”

Racist, front to back. In other words, our laws and our police are illegitimate and they're immoral. Don't worry about violating or ignoring them.

Texas Democratic Senate candidate Robert Beto O'Rourke agrees with this. He recently told the crowd that police in America murder and imprison people solely because of their skin color. Now, that's factually untrue. It's ridiculous. And, of course, he didn't even try to prove it was true.

But it's also a slur on decent people of all colors who are trying their best to serve this country in law enforcement.

O'Rourke's fellow Democrats could have said something about this but they didn't. They're not allowed to. Nobody is. Defend America and you will be punished.

Former Congresswoman Mary Bono lost her job just this week as president of USA Gymnastics. What did she do wrong? Well she leveled a veiled criticism at Colin Kaepernick. That's unacceptable now.

Kaepernick makes millions denigrating our national symbols. He's a hero. Nike hired him. If you complain about that though, you're the villain, and you're out. Defending America is suddenly a firing offense on the left.

Mark Salvas learned this the hard way. Salvas wasn't simply a loyal Democrat. He was the head of Allegheny County Pennsylvania Democratic Party, also a military veteran. You think he'd be allowed to stick up for America once in a while, but no.

He made the mistake of writing this in a Facebook post. "I stand for the flag. I kneel at the cross."

Now, not so long ago, most Democrats would have nodded in agreement at that. Today, it's hate speech. And he lost his job.

Adapted from Tucker Carlson’s monologue on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” October 17, 2018.