If Trump Is the One Promoting Violence, Then Why Do So Many Americans Say They Want to Punch Him in the Face?

I wondered about this after reading The Hill piece about a poll that says 54% of Americans want to punch Trump in the face:

More than half of Americans, 54 percent, want to give GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump a “pop in the kisser,” according to a new online poll.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton ranks second in the WalletHub/Survey Monkey poll released Monday, with 14 percent.

President Obama is a close third, with 13 percent, while a generic “congressman” takes fourth place on the list, with 12 percent.

To be fair, I doubt that over half of Americans want to punch Trump, as the survey only used 1000 individuals to make such an assertion: “WalletHub/Survey Monkey conducted its latest survey of 1,000 individuals via online surveys from March 15 to 16.”

Yet, it is troubling. The more the media encourages hatred toward Trump, the more likely it is that troubled individuals will feel it gives them license to commit violence. But maybe that’s the goal. It is always seen as funny when violence is threatened against a Republican and as horrible and deserving of death when threatened against leftists.

The hypocrites (and there are some on the right as well) who call Trump violent when advocating violence against him remind me of the Biblical verse from Matthew: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” In this political climate, it seems to be a good piece of advice for many out there, regardless of whether or not one is religious.