When President Joe Biden addressed the nation Sunday in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, he urged the country to “lower the temperature in our politics.”

“While we may disagree, we are not enemies,” Biden said in an Oval Office speech.

Incendiary rhetoric has been burning through our political discourse for years, it’s going to take more than a call for unity to cool things down.

But it’s critical that we do so.

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) got the assignment, calling on elected officials to drop the “hyperbolic threats about the stakes of this election,” after Trump was shot Saturday, according to The Hill.

In a multiple-post thread on the social platform X, the moderate Democrat chastised his fellow politicians for portraying their political opponents as “diabolical caricatures bent on destroying the country,” and as “enemies who would ruin us, to be defeated at all costs.”

But the inflammatory default is strong.

N.Y. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized an anonymous “senior Democrat” who was quoted saying the party was “resigned” to another four years under former President Trump.

Ocasio-Cortez, in a post on the social platform X, said Democratic members who feel that way should “absolutely retire” from their posts in Congress, the New York Post reported.

“If you’re a ‘senior Democrat’ that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.

Perhaps AOC was watching another channel during Biden’s speech.

Jacqueline Marsaw, a staffer for a Democratic congressman from Mississippi, reportedly wrote on Facebook Saturday:

“I don’t condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time ooops that wasn’t me talking.”

She is now an ex-staffer.

Mainstream media is also doing a self-check: MSNBC pulled its “Morning Joe” talk show from the air on Monday, replaced with breaking news coverage. A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole.

Translation: A guest could make an anti-Trump comment, par for the course on “Morning Joe.”

Frenzied characterizations of opponents is very much on brand with too many in Congress and media. It satisfies the base, and proves allyship with supporters who threaten to withhold votes or viewership for those who don’t cater to their whims.

As David Axelrod, former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, and others have pointed out, social media is a cauldron for anger, ignorance and vitriol. Hate generates interaction, and that’s profitable.

Decanting hatred and vicious hyperbole from social media and public statements is a heavy lift – but unless there’s a concerted top-down effort from members of Congress, the mainstream media and social media “sages,” we will lose the best of what America can be.

Editorial cartoon by Steve Kelley (Creators Syndicate)