In case you've been wondering just how overheated and out of control this election cycle has become, look no further than this story. In a small suburban town in northwest Michigan, an 80-year-old man was out in the front yard of his home on Sunday evening. He was erecting a yard sign expressing his support for Donald Trump in the upcoming election. At the same time, an unnamed 22-year-old man was riding an ATV down his street. Suddenly, and without warning, the ATV driver veered off of the street and into the elderly man's yard, literally running him down and injuring him badly before speeding away. During the ensuing investigation, it was revealed that the same ATV rider had been involved in other, similar incidents the same day. Don't be fooled into thinking that this might have been some sort of tragic, random accident because it definitely was not. (NBC News)

After an 80-year-old man was struck by an ATV while putting up a Trump sign in his yard in Michigan on Sunday, a 22-year-old called authorities saying he was involved, then killed himself, officials said.

The elderly man was run over by an ATV driver in Hancock at 5:45 p.m. following other vandalism incidents appearing to target those expressing support for former President Donald Trump or law enforcement, police there said.

On Monday, a 22-year-old man contacted Hancock police and said he wanted to “confess a crime involving an ATV driver within the last 24 hours," the Houghton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The 80-year-old victim was admitted to the hospital in critical condition. So how can we be sure that this wasn't some random traffic accident? Because the same ATV rider was involved in at least three other incidents on the same day. Damage was done to both residential properties and vehicles. All of them had either signage or stickers expressing support for Donald Trump or law enforcement. One of the targeted cars had a "Thin Blue Line" sticker on it that was smashed, along with the vehicle's bumper.

Authorities will not be able to question the suspect about his motives because he's dead. The unnamed 22-year-old called the police and confessed to "being involved in" a series of incidents involving an ATV, asking them to come to his home to speak to him. When the police arrived, they found the man dead in his own vehicle from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The ATV involved in the incidents was found there, along with clothes matching those that witnesses reported the suspect to have been wearing. Even if he weren't dead, this should have been a fairly open-and-shut case.

What in the Sam Hill is going on in this country during this election cycle? We frequently comment on the way that Donald Trump appears to have driven the left insane, but in the case of the Michigan ATV driver, it appears to have been literally true. Keep in mind that this ATV rampage took place only one week after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life. Last month, in San Jose, California, a group of rioters attacked a rally of Trump supporters, hurling rocks, bottles, and shards of broken glass at them. A young woman with a MAGA hat was seriously injured and taken to the hospital. 

This is not the typical ebb and flow of American politics during an election season. It's true that Donald Trump tends to attract nearly unprecedented crowds of frequently rowdy supporters who gather in the thousands to hear him speak. But the left has managed to gin up so much hatred against Trump that it is clearly spilling over and triggering the less stable among them. (I know... it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes.) This is not a case in which people strongly disagree with the man's policies. This is a red-hot, unbridled hatred of the man himself. And that same hatred carries over to anyone seen as supporting Trump as well. Some will simply fume quietly at home. Others will take to the streets and protest noisily. But increasingly often, others will resort to violence, either attempting to kill Trump or physically attack his supporters. Democratic politicians and their servants in the legacy media continue to fuel this rage on a daily basis and it has long since gone too far by a wide margin.