The dark night of political violence keeps getting predicted on the right while actually descending on the left.

Here we go again: There’s a campaign of terror against Tesla to protest Elon Musk’s politics.

Democrats aren’t acting as if they intend to do anything to stop it.

In Las Vegas last week, five cars at a Tesla service center were set on fire and shot at.

Texas police found “multiple incendiary devices” at a Tesla dealership in north Austin. Other explosives have been found in San Antonio, where the FBI is dispatching experts.

The Justice Department, which has announced a task force to address the problem, has already brought federal charges against a man in Salem, Ore. “armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle,” who “was arrested after throwing approximately eight Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership,” a woman “arrested in Loveland, Col. after attempting to light Teslas on fire with Molotov cocktails,” and a man in Charleston, SC, who “wrote profane messages against President Trump around Tesla charging stations before lighting [them] on fire with Molotov cocktails.”

The violence has gone international, with 80 Tesla vehicles damaged in an attack in Hamilton, Ontario. The list goes on.

Terrorism is the use of violence to achieve political ends. When the government or people engaged in politics change their behavior for fear of it, that’s how terrorism succeeds. 

By any definition, this is terrorism.

It’s aimed at getting Musk to stop supporting Donald Trump, disband his Department of Government Efficiency, change his recommendations for cutting government, stop donating to Republicans or otherwise leave the public square.

As the campaign of bombings of cars with combustible batteries drags on and armed vandals attack dealerships, it’s only a matter of time before somebody dies.

When that happens, Democrats will regret not doing more to distance themselves from this spate of violence.

They’re not doing much of that right now.

Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett told a “Tesla Takedown” digital rally, “All I want to see happen on my birthday is for Elon to be taken down.”

As the violence takes a toll on Tesla sales and the company’s stock slumps, Crockett says that “there is only one language that the people that are in charge understand right now, and that language is money.”

Crockett insists she is talking only about “peaceful” protest.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told a crowd that the falling price made him happy: “On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day — $225 and dropping.”

He also suggested defacing your own Tesla: “You can take dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off.”

Walz had to apologize after it was pointed out that Minnesota’s pension fund for public employees was heavily invested in Tesla stock.

The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson, a campaign consultant supporting Democrats, wrote an essay headlined, “Kill Tesla, Save the Country,” calling the company “a bank for fascists.”

Jimmy Kimmel made it a punchline: “Don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,” he said, followed by a winking look at the camera while his audience roared with laughter.

Many other prominent Democrats have just kept silent, seeing nothing worth denouncing.

That won’t cut it.

Politicians aren’t responsible when one random crackpot takes things too far. But this is an ongoing campaign of violence, using common tactics with a common target toward a common end.

Instead of appealing for calm, too many Democrats are sitting back and letting it happen — while their party’s most belligerent voices keep fanning the flames.

Even the most righteous causes need leaders to step up and say how far is too far.

Abraham Lincoln and other anti-slavery Republicans denounced John Brown. Pro-life groups have been vocal for years against violence against abortion providers, which was more common 30 years ago.

But the same people who knelt for the George Floyd rioters, the same leaders who incited protest mobs and assassination threats at the homes of Supreme Court justices, the same movement that let pro-Hamas terror run free on campus, and the same party whose socialist wing celebrates Luigi Mangione for murdering a health-insurance CEO?

They are not so righteous.

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review. Twitter: @BaseballCrank