Donald Trump has normalized all kinds of bizarre behavior in American politics, but the one that needs a whole lot more attention is his acceptance of the idea that violence can be used to achieve political outcomes in this country. More and more, this is becoming a mainstream idea among his MAGA followers, while his fellow Republicans either say nothing or actively join in the incitements to violence. The media has completely fallen down on the job of pressing politicians to denounce such language and pointedly ask every politician they interview whether they support such a disgraceful concept. This is a dangerous place for our country to be, and it seems like it's only going to get more dangerous over time.

President Joe Biden recently made a trip out West, with a stop in Utah. A man in Utah publicly threatened to shoot Biden with a sniper rifle. The F.B.I. went to arrest him and he reportedly pointed a .357 handgun at them. They shot and killed him. Just this week, a woman in Texas was arrested for threatening to kill the judge in one of Donald Trump's legal cases. These are treated as minor isolated incidents and are mostly ignored by the mainstream media. But they keep happening with regularity.

Meanwhile, Trump is thundering retribution out on the campaign trail and making veiled threats against everyone involved in the legal cases against him -- the prosecutors, the judges, the grand juries, and Joe Biden for good measure. Other Republicans are getting even bolder in their calls for violence.

Republican politicians now regularly make political ads featuring themselves brandishing or firing weapons of war. They pose for holiday photos with their families (including young children) all proudly bearing arms that were created for use on a battlefield. Some of these ads even threaten to use or dramatize the use of such weapons against their political opponents. That is just flat-out wrong, folks.

So where are the Republican voices condemning all this? Nowhere to be found, for the most part. Either they enable Trump's calls for violence by agreeing with his basic premise (that the 2020 presidential election wasn't the safest and most secure in all of American history), or they enable him by their silence.

Which is why today I felt it necessary to highlight a voice from the past. With all the news out of Georgia this week, one video clip has been played to remind us all of what the situation in Georgia right after the 2020 election was truly like. At the time it appeared, I ran the transcript of the entire video because I felt it was so important. Finally, a Republican was standing up to Trump's bullying -- in a very memorable and emotional way. If only Trump and the rest of the Republican Party had heeded this advice, we wouldn't be where we are today. This statement was given on the first day of December, 2020 -- over a month before the events of January 6th. The genie of political violence wasn't completely out of the bottle, to put it another way, and could still have been prevented from emerging.

In any case, as I said I felt it was time to revisit this remarkable statement, because (sadly) nothing has changed. Trump is still cheerleading violence against all his perceived enemies and Republican senators and congressmen and other GOP politicians are still treating this all as somehow normal.

But it's not. Or, at the very least, it shouldn't be.

Originally published as the Talking Points section of "Friday Talking Points (Vol. 598)," on December 4th, 2020.

Occasionally there are moments in politics that really require everyone to stop and take note. This week saw one of these moments. In an incredibly heartfelt press conference, Gabriel Sterling, an elections official in Georgia, made a plea for sanity.

Top Georgia Republicans, as well as everyone else working on the state's election process, have been falsely accused by the president of the United States of somehow "stealing" the election from him. They have no evidence, they have no proof. But not only is Trump raging at these officials, his followers have taken it the next logical step and started threatening violence and death towards them.

Sterling, this week, had just had enough.

He spoke without notes, straight from his heart. His words are much more powerful, as a result. They are, in fact, the complete opposite of "talking points."

But this plea really needs to be heard by as many people as possible. And not just some little five-second soundbite, either. The whole video is only a little over 10 minutes long, but everyone should really take the time to watch it, just to hear the emotion in his voice.

Below is the transcript of what Sterling said. We have not even attempted to add emphasis to any of it (such as: "THIS. HAS. TO. STOP."), since doing so would require almost half the speech to be emphasized in some fashion or another. We did parse it a bit differently than the transcript site did, because it wasn't delivered in paragraph form, it was a succession of strong statements that needed to stand out more. This is also why we recommend watching the entire video, because viewing it is like a punch in the stomach.

This is a man -- a Republican, by the way -- who is standing up for decency, for the rule of law, and for democracy itself. He is challenging all people, up to and including his own party's two senators and president, to stop the insanity before it goes too far.

Every American needs to hear this message, because there have been precious few people who have made a stronger moral case against Trumpism. Which is why we pre-empted our own talking points this week, because we really thought it was that important.

Good afternoon. My name is Gabriel Sterling. I'm the Voting System Implementation Manager for the state of Georgia. And just to give y'all a heads up, this is going to be sort of a two-part press conference today. At the beginning of this, I'm going to do my best to keep it together because it has all gone too far. All of it.

Joe diGenova today asked for Chris Krebs, a patriot who ran CISA, to be shot.

A twenty-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out, saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an E.M.S. to a county computer so we could read it.

It has to stop.

Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions.

This has to stop.

We need you to step up and if you're going to take a position of leadership, show some.

My boss, Secretary Raffensperger, his [home] address is out there. They have people doing caravans in front of their house. They've had people come on to their property. Tricia, his wife of 40 years, is getting sexualized threats through her cell phone.

It has to stop.

This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy. And all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this.

It's too much.

Yes. Fight for every legal vote. Go through your due process. We encourage you. Use your First Amendment. That's fine.

Death threats, physical threats, intimidation, it's too much. It's not right. They've lost the moral high ground to claim that it is.

I don't have all the best words to do this because I'm angry. The straw that broke the camel's back today is again, this 20-year-old contractor for a voting system company, just trying to do his job. Just there. In fact, I talked to Dominion today and [they] said he's one of the better ones they got. His family is getting harassed now. There's a noose out there with his name on it.

That's not right.

I've got police protection outside my house. Fine. I took a higher profile job. I get it. [The] secretary [of state] ran for office. His wife knew that too. This kid took a job. He just took a job.

And it's just wrong.

I can't begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. And every American, every Georgian -- Republican and Democrat alike -- should have that same level of anger.

Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We're investigating. There's always a possibility. I get it, and you have the rights to go through the courts. What you don't have the ability to do, and you need to step up and say this, is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.

Someone's going to get hurt.

Someone's going to get shot.

Someone's going to get killed.

And it's not right.

It's not right.

And y'all, I don't have anything scripted. Like I said, I'm going to do my best to keep it together.

All of this is wrong.

DiGenova, who said for Chris Krebs to get shot, is a former US Attorney.

He knows better.

The people around the President know better.

Mr. President, as the secretary said yesterday, people aren't giving you the best advice of what's actually going on the ground. It's time to look forward. If you want to run for re-election in four years, fine, do it. But everything we're seeing right now, there's not a path. Be the bigger man here and step in. Tell your supporters: "Don't be violent. Don't intimidate."

All that's wrong.

It's un-American.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant