Last Saturday, a 20-year-old would-be assassin attempted to kill Donald Trump.

The former president thankfully survived the attempt, though a bullet did strike his ear. Tragically, one man, Corey Comperatore, a father of two, was killed, and two other rallygoers were critically injured, though both have stabilized throughout the week. The gunman, whose name does not bear repeating, was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

It was a harrowing day for our country, but, unfortunately, no one can say it was a surprise. The political temperature has been steadily rising across the U.S. for years. Pair that with our easy access to firearms, and we can’t deign to say it’s a surprise that a deranged gunman would make such an attempt.

In the week since the attack, many politicians and leaders from both sides of the aisle have condemned the shooting, said that political violence has no place in our democracy and called for unity.

Unity, of course, is what we need. But others, including Trump’s new vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, have been quick to throw blame.

“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance posted on X just hours after the shooting. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

It is true that Biden’s rhetoric had increased in recent months. He has repeatedly called Trump a threat to democracy, and at one point, the president said that it was “time to put Trump in a bullseye,” a comment he has since admitted was a mistake.

Euphemistic rhetoric that hints at violence does not belong in our politics, and Biden was wrong to get so careless with his words. But to imply that Biden’s language alone “led directly” to the attack is disingenuous.

The reality is that Trump himself has been normalizing violent rhetoric since he first descended that golden escalator in 2015.

This is not to imply that Trump is at fault for the attack on his life. On this, we must be absolutely clear. Violence has no place in our politics, and no victim brings violence upon themselves. The culpability for this attack belongs to the gunman.

That said, we cannot overlook the reality that normalizing violent rhetoric has the potential to incite violence. And no one has done more to normalize it than Trump himself.

In this campaign cycle alone, Trump insinuated former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley should be executed; he pledged to root out the “radical left thugs that live like vermin”; he shared a computer-generated video of Biden tied up in the back of a truck; and earlier this summer he called his political opponents “human scum.” All of this is without even getting into the Jan. 6 insurrection.

To witness the fallout of the normalization of this rhetoric by the party’s standard bearer, we only have to look at how emboldened local politicians have become to spread hate.

Last month, the chair of the state GOP sent out an email from the party calling the LGBTQ community “godless groomers” who are seeking to “harm our children,” and on X he put out a call to “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”

When it is normal for our political leaders to dehumanize their opponents as “human scum” and “godless groomers,” we cannot be surprised when violence occurs. The same is true of talking about putting a “bullseye” on a political rival.

Whether or not this normalization of violent rhetoric played a part in motivating the shooter, we may never know. What we do know, though, is that now is the time to put an end to this rhetoric so it does not motivate any further violence in the future.

Our hope is that the jolt of political violence will not beget more violence but will help us put into perspective what is at stake: our democracy.

Our nation has had a tumultuous and fraught history. It was founded through the murder and displacement of the natives already here. It was built on the backs of slaves. And it was only solidified through the bloodshed of a civil war. But despite the inequity that has forever haunted us, most Americans have known nothing but democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. For all the dissatisfaction we feel with our opposition, we know we can go to the ballot box in two or four year’s time and enact change.

We cannot be complacent with this privilege. And we cannot let this norm be eroded.

Immediately after the Jan. 6 insurrection, change seemed inevitable. The tragedy of that day appeared to have shaken sense into our leaders; there were consequences to undermining democracy after all.

Alas, that perception of a shared reverence for our democracy quickly faded. Party lines were reentrenched and Trump’s Big Lie became something of a GOP platform.

It is our hope, though, that this loathsome assassination attempt can serve as a lasting shock to our collective system. A call to action to redouble our efforts to save our democracy. To champion civility. To remember that everyone, no matter how much we disagree with them, is a human.

This act of violence cannot deepen our divisions or beget more violence. Instead, it must embolden us to put our faith in our votes. And to believe that we can work through our disagreements with mutual respect.

Finally, to ward off more political violence, the GOP must end its crusade to undermine confidence in our elections.

Defending the integrity of our elections is paramount. But in the four years since Trump’s Big Lie began the cascade of election denialism, no evidence of widespread voter fraud has come to light.

Whatever the reason Republicans have so dedicated themselves to this cause, sowing doubt about our elections is deeply cynical. It is also a potential precursor of political violence.

If the GOP continues to sell the lie that the results of our elections are not trustworthy, it becomes ever more likely for voters to feel like they have lost their ability to participate in the governance of our country. If we cannot incite change through the vote, violence is likely to become an acceptable recourse.

This cannot be allowed to happen. If we really do believe in our democracy, in the unity of our union, now is the time for everyone — from all across the political spectrum — to turn down the rhetorical temperature. And it is also the time to rebuild confidence in our democracy — and the peaceful transfer of power.

Gary Garrison for the Editorial Board