A recent poll finds that 28 percent of Democrats think America would “be better off if Donald Trump had been killed last weekend” and 25 percent are “not sure.” While President Biden and Vice President Harris offer occasional generalizations about “lowering the temperature” in politics, rage is catching fire with their base.

On Sunday, Secret Service agents at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course noticed a gunman in the bushes. The following day, his campaign sent out a list of more than 50 quotes of “incendiary rhetoric” from Democrats that they said “inspired another attempt on President Trump’s life.”

The New York Times, the Sun wrote in an editorial on Monday, charged that “Trump is somehow to blame” for gunmen targeting him. On Tuesday, the Fox News senior White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, asked Mr. Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, about the topic.

“How many more assassination attempts on Donald Trump,” Mr. Doocy asked, “until the president and vice president and you pick a different word to describe Trump, other than ‘threat’?” Ms. Jean-Pierre responded that she “completely” disagreed with his “premise” and called the question “incredibly dangerous.”

Such banter is to be expected in a campaign, but feeling comfortable advocating for the assassination of a former president and current candidate is not just another political issue. Legitimizing attempts on Trump’s life goes against America’s long democratic tradition, as the cliché goes, of settling disputes with ballots not bullets.

The poll numbers are even more striking given that the question was prefaced with a somewhat clunky caveat. “While it is always difficult to wish ill of another human being,” it began, “would America be better off if Donald Trump had been killed last weekend?”

Less than half of Democrats, 47 percent, answered that America would be improved if Trump’s latest assassin had succeeded. Among Republicans, 92 percent preferred that the former president survived for the good of the nation. 

Just 7 percent of the GOP saw a benefit in Trump being slain and just 1 percent were unsure. Overall, 69 percent of those surveyed were glad Trump survived, 17 percent preferred he hadn’t, and 14 percent were unsure.

In a statement from the Napolitan News Service accompanying the poll results, a long-time pollster and political analyst, Scott Rasmussen, struck an optimistic note. “I continue to believe that America’s best days are still to come,” he said, but “things will get worse before they get better. These numbers suggest that the phase of getting worse is clearly upon us.”

The poll, conducted by RMG Research Inc., has a solid sample size of 1,000 registered voters. Nevertheless, it might be dismissed as an outlier without so much vitriol firing up tempers on our various screens 24/7. The “flames of rage” have been lit, as I wrote for the Sun on Wednesday, and will spread if left unchecked.

The poll question’s preamble about it being difficult to wish ill on another person seems more pollyannaish with each fresh example. On Wednesday during C-Span’s Washington Journal, a caller on the Democratic line named Willie identified himself as a “very patriotic American” who did “20 years in the military.”

After ticking off the familiar Democratic concern that Trump would “destroy America,” Willie said he supported the two men who “had to step up and take that shot” at the former president. “You’re not advocating violence, are you?” the C-Span host, John McArdle, asked.

“I’m talking about defending my country,” Willie said, stating that it was “not violence” to shoot Trump. Compare this belief to the sentiment behind a social media post that went viral in 2011 among the left after Navy Seals killed the terrorist behind 9/11, Osama Bin Laden.

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives,” the quote, misattributed to Martin Luther King Jr., said, “but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.” That universal respect for life is gone when it comes to Trump.

Expect right and left to keep pointing fingers at each other for creating this climate where political violence is gaining in acceptance. It will be up to the sober few to point the thumb at themselves — asking what they can do to usher in better days, when Americans again disagree in the public square but rely on ballots alone to lay disputes to rest.