I originally planned to write about the massive number of politics-oriented texts that I’ve been getting on my phone. They were unsolicited and annoying. I know that many of you are inundated with these texts and share my concern. When I searched online for directions on how to stop all this, I discovered that the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t block political campaign texts and calls.

Political campaigns are run by legitimate organizations that know how to go around the rules meant to stop robocalls and robotexts.

I was going to share the advice of a blog, “How To Survive the Election Year and Political Text Spam That Comes With It.” But everything changed last weekend with the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

The political world abruptly shifted. There were no more texts like these: “Desperately asking,” “Begging — please,” “We’re nervous and double checking,” “Please: if you don’t respond, our dataset will be incomplete.” And these were the nice ones.

Texts that included name-calling accusations accompanied by conspiracy theories and assertions that the other political party would be the downfall of America stopped.

With the attempted assassination of Trump, it’s understandable that politicians are calling for the country to come together and asking for a reprieve from rage-filled, fearmongering political rhetoric. But given how anger has fueled so much of politics recently, the country’s chill may be short.

How long will it take for the dehumanizing and denigrating rhetoric to return to campaign text messages? Days?

I remain hopeful about America’s future, but a decade of research suggests such optimism is iffy. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published an excellent article, “Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence in the United States: What the Research Says.”

The article points out that misbeliefs about the other party are at fault, especially among progressive activists and extreme conservatives. The misbeliefs are fueled not necessarily by voters themselves, but by politicians’ extreme polarization. Party leaders know that voters are vulnerable to polarizing language and usually adjust their candidate preferences to match what their party has normalized.

The real problem is the normalization of hate and violence. One way that politicians normalize hate is to create a sense that violent acts are permitted and might even make the perpetrator a hero. Remember Kyle Rittenhouse? The young man was applauded after offering “protection” from a Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin and killing two people.

Politicians now claim that they’re all for unity and against violence. But conspiracy theories that promote hate persist. Research shows that attempts at unity in such an environment have little effect, and any possible impact doesn’t last long.

Conspiracy theories are now multiplying quickly: 1) This was a “Deep State” coup; 2) white supremacists are blaming Jews because they couldn’t beat Trump by cheating this time.

What to do? We must ensure that there are consequences to violent political action. Perpetrators, like those in the Jan. 6 insurrection, shouldn’t be given a pass. Leave online platforms spreading conspiracy theories, including X and TikTok. The hate and political violence must stop.