It’s been a week, but I am still thinking about Gov. Sisolak and the first lady being accosted as they went out to dinner.

I am not still wondering how frightening it must have been for Nevada’s first couple – I am sure it was. Nor am I musing about the two fools in the restaurant – they don’t deserve a second thought or to be named.

Instead, I am thinking about where we are and where this came from.

I am not sure I have a lot to add to the already excellent columns written by John L. Smith, David Colborne and Steve Sebelius. But as someone who has covered government and campaigns here since 1986 and someone who oversees a news organization, the breakdown in politics and journalism is more than just disturbing.

Ignore those who pooh pooh the state of the state and union as anything other than dire – it is manifestly so. Ignore those who tell you that this incident was an aberration, that these lunkheads are outliers – I only wish it were so.

We are in a brave new world, and those of us who care about our profession have to adjust. We must adjust.

You’re in here without security, you piece of shit.

I am stunned that the governor did not have security that evening; the Legislative Building, because of the current atmosphere, has become a fortress. It’s no time for carelessness.

I don’t care who those attention-seeking, preening Bozos are. This is about who enabled them to feel comfortable enough to do what they did and what we, as journalists, need to do to recalibrate in this new environment.

Social media long ago opened the door for people to mindlessly hurl invective at others, often anonymously. But what happened before and after the 2020 election, courtesy of Donald Trump and his clapping seals, has motivated people to come out from behind their IP addresses and hector and threaten people publicly.

You New World Order traitor piece of shit.

There is a direct through line from Trump crying fraud before the balloting two years ago and then pressing the case ever since, with the help of opportunists and malefactors, to the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol and then to that restaurant in Las Vegas, where it could have been much worse.

What happened in D.C. has come to our house – or it easily could. Remember what happened at the governors’ mansion almost two years ago, with the scent of violence in the air? What happened then and what happened a week ago didn’t happen 3,000 miles away; it happened in our house. We all must say: Not in our house!

Trump and his Trumplodytes lit the fuse under a kindling of blatant lies and conspiracy theories, and it led to the horrific riot at the Capitol. They continued to plant these poisonous seeds in many minds – 70 percent of Republicans think the election was stolen despite zero evidence – and the net effect was to undermine faith in elections and sow anger in a significant number of Americans.

COVID provided a natural extension for those only interested in fueling the fury in a public that became apoplectic at their kids being remote-schooled and/or their jobs being lost. They took a justifiable frustration and fear of the future and weaponized it with fabulism about hydroxycholorquine and 20-20 hindsight about gubernatorial decisions.

Hiding the hydroxychloroquine… Where’s your security at, punk?

The behavior of Sisolak’s opponents in the aftermath was all-too telling. Joey Gilbert and Michele Fiore, who are as low-class and empty-headed as the two clowns in the restaurant, responded by all but congratulating them. Close your eyes. Now tell me you can’t imagine Gilbert or Fiore acting the same way if the governor came into a place where they were eating.

I thought Joe Lombardo’s statement was pretty good, but why did he have to preface it by saying he “understands the frustration”? We know why.

And worst of all, the sounds of silence from a once-intermittently-respected elected official, Dean Heller, show just how the desperation for relevancy and a title have reduced him to a craven shell of a man.

And what about all the Republican “leaders” of the Legislature in the aftermath? Base got their tongues? Yes, they are all honorable men and women.

There are other bad actors here, too, including cynical and greedy consultants egging their candidates on. Sure, it’s a mercenary business, but where do they draw the line? Is there any line left?

You working for China piece of shit… You traitor

The racism spewed by morons at the governor and his Asian-American wife also should not shock after hearing of “Kung Flu” and other racist notions, including from elected officials, since COVID began two years ago. But it does. And it must.

To paraphrase what Jose Ferrer said before throwing the drink in Fred MacMurray‘s face, here’s to the real authors of what happened a week ago: Donald Trump, Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt, Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant and Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald – and, alas, too many others in the public eye who are culpable.

This is no time for whataboutism, either. Sure, some Democrats are partly responsible for the current toxic climate. Progressives with their nasty haughtiness, Maxine Waters and others who say stupid stuff all the time.

In 2016, only a handful of House Democrats protested Trump’s election; about two-thirds of House Republicans voted not to certify the results in 2020.

Only one party is led by and inhabited by public figures who have decided it is better to divide and conquer than tell the truth, that it is better to undermine democracy than accept defeat, that it is better to win as cowards than lose with grace.

You’re running into a patriot now

Yes, they love to call themselves “patriots.” They revere that word. But these people are the opposite of patriots; they tried to overturn or rooted for the overturning of a democratic election. This is inarguable.

The more difficult question is what we, as journalists, do about this. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I have some:

Don’t give these people oxygen – whether they are running for office or seeking their 15 minutes of fame by verbally assaulting a candidate. (Some news outlets actually livestreamed video of one of those media-hungry harassers after the incident so he could get more attention.)

If candidates for office insist on spreading disinformation, call them out. Fact-check them. Press them hard in interviews.

Ask every Republican candidate if Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States. If they won’t answer or say no, treat them with the dismissiveness they deserve. That may seem harsh, but what else are we here for except to make sure the public gets the truth?

Make sure the governor is forced to defend all of his COVID policies and how long he kept them in place. But also hold the Republicans who criticize those decisions, some made with almost no information as to the virus’s trajectory, to describe what they would have done.

Journalism has been rightly battered at times the last few years, but we can’t shirk our duty now in the face of nasty trolls, be they on Twitter or in bars. I refuse to give in to pessimism and dread; it’s just too important.

We should string you up on a lamp post right now

Those are hard words to forget. I hope that what happened in that restaurant is the worst that we see this season, but I am not optimistic. So let’s not forget the violence of their words but focus on those who emboldened them to say what they did.

Remember their names.