In the July 20 Wall Street Journal, former attorney general Ed Meese called attention to the practice at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of smearing political opponents.  Mr. Meese pointed to a remark by the group's Mark Potok to suggest that the SPLC is not content merely to smear its targets, but aims at their destruction.  Potok's remark called to mind a David Plouffe comment cited by New York Times reporter Amy Chozick last August 3: 

David Plouffe, President Obama's former campaign manager, proposed the idea in June. "It is not enough to simply beat Trump," he wrote on Twitter. "He must be destroyed thoroughly. His kind must not rise again."

Consider the IRS campaign against Tea Party groups seeking tax waivers.  Add to that the "John Doe" campaign against conservatives in Wisconsin, a campaign that included the use of midnight raids by SWAT teams on the homes of conservatives.  It seems fair to conclude that the U.S. left views politics not in a debating society context, but in a civil war setting – the aim being the obliteration of the enemy.

I am not aware of any editorials in the leftist media denouncing police state tactics against conservatives, tactics clearly intended to destroy conservatives so that their "kind" do "not rise again."

The Wall Street Journal editorial page stood alone in the media against the outbreak of leftist totalitarianism during President Obama's second term.  Recently, the Journal took note of the campaign by Senate Democrats to sabotage nominations by the Trump administration, a campaign that, undoubtedly, will be cited by leftist columnists to illustrate the incompetence of President Trump, the better to destroy his presidency.

Consider, too, this New York Times editorial statement, August 20, 2016:

It could be that the polls are right, and Mr. Trump will go down in flames. But while that will solve an immediate problem, a larger one will remain. The message of hatred and paranoia that is inciting millions of voters will outlast the messenger. The toxic effects of Trumpism will have to be addressed.

If a defeated Trump presented a problem for the New York Times, imagine the immensity to the Times of the problem of an elected Trump.  And so, every day, the Times addresses "[t]he  toxic effects of  Trumpism[.]"  To what end?  To its destruction, of course.   

This, after all, is what leftists – certainly since Lenin's day – tend to do.  Destroy the opposition.  Republicans: Those are Leninists in Democratic clothing you are dealing with.  Don't say you were never warned.