When people in a position of power carelessly use words of hate and violence, they allow that kind of negativity into the social norm.

Let me give you an example: a parent, aggravated by a long week at work, has bad bouts of road rage on their morning commute, which includes dropping off their small child at school. Probably, they internally recognize that this anger is an overreaction, but they continue to use negative gestures and speech, just trying to "blow off some steam" from other frustrations. Their windows are up, and they aren't being violent or physically aggressive towards anyone, so it's not necessarily hurting anybody; however, they are vocalizing this anger (with a lot of negativity)... around their child.

Later that day, the parent gets a call from the school, with a complaint from a teacher about their child's bad language and clear temper problems that day. Do I have to make this connection for you? Even though the parent wasn't telling the child to swear, or be mean, or act a certain way to other people, the child picked up on what the parent was doing, and as is common to the trusting nature of the child, decided that because the parent was doing it, it was acceptable. The child let that bad behavior into its social norm. Other children might have even picked up on it from that child. The classroom social norm might change. It's that fast, and it's that simple.

This happens every day. Most parents recognize this and often find themselves making a conscious effort to clean up their speech and actions, making sure that if they don't want their child doing it, they don't let their child see or hear it.

This is such a simple concept; let's make it a little bit harder.

Let's say, that instead of a parent, we have a political contender.

Probably, this individual would want to achieve some level of power in government, as is the way of politicians. So we could assume that they are in the public eye quite a bit since that is also common with politicians who are climbing the ladder.

An individual who is constantly being observed sounds a bit like the parent of the small child.

What happens when this individual is a little on the touchy side - when they are easily baited and tend to carelessly toss words out into the unforgiving sea of the media?

What happens when this politician chooses words that are crass and socially unacceptable when making very public speeches? We would hope that they would be condemned, that their words chalked up to immaturity and that people not take them or their ideas seriously, but what about the followers of this politician?

You probably guessed: I'm talking about Donald Trump. His partners, and allies, and certainly, those followers, who are almost like children to him, are influenced by his careless words.

Words like:

"I'll beat the crap out of you."

"Part of the problem... is that nobody wants to hurt each other anymore."

"The audience hit back. That's what we need a little more of."

"I'd like to punch him in the face."

"Maybe he should've been roughed up."

Or what about the incitation of violent behavior? Not even directly stating it, but suggesting that his supporters could hurt protestors, and that he would protect them (here and here), or commenting that those protestors weren't being treated poorly enough, is unacceptable. He also encouraged his supporters to fight for him, and most recently, gave an almost call to action for "second amendment people" to take care of his competitor, Hillary Clinton.

If you don't understand what this kind of intentional vagueness can do to a social community, or if you agree with GOP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan that Trump's recent comments were a "joke gone bad," then please take a look at this article, which discusses that idea implicitly. None of these violent comments are just a joke. In fact, it almost doesn't matter whether Trump wholeheartedly meant these things or if he was joking - in the public eye, all that matters is the interpretation, and his words can so easily be read as intending violence.

As an advocate for peace, I really fear for the day when someone cruel and easily accepting of casual violence is in charge of America. I recognize what kind of backward and dangerous road that could lead this country down, and I am not ready to watch us fall like that.

This is not a pro-Clinton article. I have many issues with the way Mrs. Clinton has run her campaign, and with many of her choices as a politician, and even as a human being. You will hear more from me about the issues of Hillary Clinton later. Mrs. Clinton is also guilty of being careless with her words, and worse, without regard for the consequences of her actions (this includes fighting for a child rapist to walk free; being a proven liar). This is also not necessarily an anti-Trump article; it is, however, recognition that someone with as much public power as a political candidate must choose their words with care, lest they accidentally become the parent of a temper-tantrum-throwing, violent, careless country.