OP is right that "war is a continuation of politics by other means",

As you no doubt know, that is from Clausewitz, and the proper translation is policy, not politics. And that was obviously never meant as domestic politics, except when war is leveraged to accomplish to accomplish domestic goals - e.g. the French Revolutionary Wars.

I said at the time (before 1/6) "these people saying these things are playing a dangerous game, because you risk people taking them seriously and taking them to their logical conclusions. So if you say them then you'd better really believe them, because some people will." And lo and behold, a lot of the politicians saying those things actually didn't believe them; and a lot of normal people who did are sitting in prison right now as a result when support they probably thought they had completely evaporated.

But that was probably inevitable. Even if they did all believe it, there is nothing that you can do. Not to mention that they act in accordance with their interests and not in accordance with their beliefs, whatever these are.

And it's happening here too: "threat to democracy and our very way of life" taken to its logical conclusion is...what almost happened on Saturday. If you believe that statement is true (which I don't of course), then the only logically consistent critique of the shooter is that he didn't actually wait until Trump won the election.

He'd probably have better security. But point taken. Condemning this attack is incompatible with believing that he is worse than Hitler. There are some people who try to square the circle by arguing that Trump is an existential threat who should be taken out using lawful means, but I can't say it is very persuasive.

Ideally the politicians and press who pushed this would be in prison for instigating it, but I think we both know that won't happen.

It'd also violate Brandenburg vs. Ohio.

The next best thing (but far from a perfect solution because it punishes normal people) is for there to be consequences for normal people saying such things the same way there is for joking about bombs in an airport security line.

But that serves an actual purpose. I would be OK with the cruelty if it actually advanced the good in some meaningful way. How exactly does punishing miserable minimum wage workers, who have no idea about politics beyond what they hear from the lying media, advance the good?.

I guess spreading terror. But will it improve things if people do not feel as comfortable mouthing off about Trump as they are now? I'd say that a lot of pro-Trump sentiment is caused not by the man's virtues, but by the vileness of his opponents.