Like a modern day Dr. Frankenstein, Donald Trump lost control of the monster he created, and it almost destroyed him. Rather than stitching body parts together, Trump assembled a vast repertoire of hateful, racist, aggressive rhetoric that inspired countless acts and threats of violence, that he has done absolutely nothing to dispel, nationwide. This climate of hostility reached its crescendo when, on January 6, 2021, at Trump’s urging, his supporters violently stormed our capitol in an attempt to subvert the results of a presidential election.

Now that the venom Trump inspires has been directed at him and the violence has come home to roost, many Republicans actually argue that criticism of Trump’s danger to democracy actually caused his attempted shooting, and that all such criticism must stop. These Republican claims, however, ring hypocritically hollow. Never mind that the shooter appears to have been a young, bullied outcast conservative Republican, obsessed with guns. The main point is that Trump’s threats to democracy must remain fair game for criticism. Trump remains a dangerous, vindictive, authoritarian hazard. His attack had nothing to do with legitimate criticism of this fact, but rather much more likely with the vile atmosphere of hate and distrust that he has fostered. Trump created this monster, and like Dr. Frankenstein, became a target of forces he could no longer control.