Charlie Kirk was murdered less than three weeks ago by a deranged leftist who inscribed anti-fascist slogans on bullet casings. Kirk’s murder should have been a wake-up call that inflammatory rhetoric smearing conservatives as “fascists” or “Nazis” or “Hitler” has deadly consequences. Instead, it’s only emboldened the left to increase such rhetoric.

Nowhere is that more apparent than California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s official press account, which spent the weekend calling White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller a “fascist” and demanding Miller kowtow to the left if he wants to stop being slandered.

“STEPHEN MILLER IS A FASCIST!” the account posted on X on Sept. 26.

Newsom’s team doubled down on the rhetoric, saying they are “calling out [Trump] and his authoritarian stooges for being fascists.”

“Textbook definition,” Newsom’s team posted with a graphic they made claiming to prove Trump and Miller are “fascists.”

“DING DONGS IN THE WHITE HOUSE: IF YOU DON’T WANT US TO CALL YOU A FASCIST THEN STOP DOING FASCIST THINGS,” a separate post read.

This isn’t random name-calling. It’s an assassination prep campaign. The left — and in particular, the office of the governor of one of the largest states in America — is demonizing and vilifying conservatives as fascists in order to desensitize Americans to political violence.

Such language implicitly justifies resistance by any means necessary, since no free person wants to live under a fascist dictatorship. The logic goes: If Trump and his administration are legitimate fascists — the same people who slaughtered and oppressed millions during WWII — then violence against them is not merely permissible, it’s actually noble. The left preys on these historical associations, knowing that when people hear “fascist” or “Nazi,” they think of enemies who rightly had to be defeated. By blurring that line, the left conditions its audience to see violence against today’s so-called “fascists” as not only acceptable but necessary.

Even Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman has the clarity to see the danger of such rhetoric, posting on X: “Unchecked extreme rhetoric, like labels as Hitler or fascist, will foment more extreme outcomes. Political violence is always wrong — no exceptions.”

Fetterman is right, but his party isn’t listening. Kirk’s murder didn’t usher in a new era of good feelings. If anything, leftists have taken it as an opportunity to escalate their rhetoric to condition their base to believe that Republicans are enemies of humanity who must be destroyed by any means necessary — unless, as stated by Newsom’s press office, Republicans lay down and roll over. The message of the left is capitulate or be killed. To the left, there is no longer room for disagreement: Either live under our terms or expect violence.

This depraved strategy must end before another life does.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2