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When I was the Union-Tribunes politics reporter, one of the most alarming things I covered was a discussion two candidates had with a local group that included extremists.

The fact that two congressional candidates, Rep. Darrell Issa and Ammar Campa-Najjar, chose to meet with the group was surprising, given the groups reputation and habit for celebrating violence against racial justice protesters in an online Facebook group. Besides that, Issa made a jarring comment to the group in which he promoted citizen groups taking up arms to defend their communities.

The freedom to enjoy your own life, your own home, to not have your banks or your churches burned down or vandalized is in fact something we cede much of our right to law enforcement, but we dont cede the right, we only cede the responsibility, Issa said. If government fails to meet the obligations youve given them, you take it back.

I found it striking at the time because you dont often hear elected officials promoting potential violence and vigilantism after all, it does run counter to the whole idea of our justice system and the notion of law and order. Beyond that though, it was alarming because that comment came just days after a thwarted plot by self-styled militia members to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and weeks after a teenager drove across state lines to confront racial justice protesters in Kenosha, Wis., where he shot and killed two people and wounded a third.

Issa defended his comment as being based on an accurate reading of the Second Amendment, but experts in extremism cautioned that his interpretation was dangerously close to the insurrectionist view of the Second Amendment being used by unsavory groups to foment a civil war.

In fact, Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, told me then that such rhetoric emboldens bad actors and provides potential vigilantes a sense of legitimacy.

Bottom line: the insurrectionist view of the Second Amendment the idea that somehow if the government is tyrannical it gives armed citizenry a right to rebellion is, I think, a dangerous one because we actually now have what we didnt have back before, the ability to throw out elected officials through the power of the ballot, not the bullet, said Levin, who wrote a book about armed civilian militias.

That exchange has been on my mind a lot this year.

I thought about it on Jan. 6, when we saw a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol; I thought about it during recent San Diego County Board of Supervisors meetings where we heard anti-mask, anti-vax individuals threaten supervisors and compare them to Nazis, and I thought about it Monday when an Oceanside man was arrested in Washington, D.C., outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters driving a pickup truck that bore a swastika and carried a machete and bayonet inside.

Ive also found myself thinking about it quite a bit as we head into the final day of voting for Californias gubernatorial recall election.

Im hoping and praying this election will not end with some kind of violent reaction or pushback. I certainly fear it might though, and it continues to be odd how often Im having that fear ahead of an election.

Apparently Im not the only one with that anxiety.

In March, CNN released a poll that showed an increasing number of Americans expect some kind of political violence in response to election results in the coming years, with 71 percent of respondents saying political violence in response to election results is at least somewhat likely, including 34 percent who said it is very likely. Notably, one of the few things Democrats and Republicans agree on today is the notion that some kind of political violence is on the horizon 78 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of independents describe it as likely.

Although some may feel those numbers are exacerbated by a series of high profile attempts at political violence such as Jan. 6 or the attempted kidnapping of Michigans governor, theres also polling that shows more Americans are getting comfortable justifying the use of violence in the face of political opposition.

In February, a poll by The Survey Center on American Life, a research group connected with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, found that more than 36 percent of Americans agree with the statement: The traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.

Additionally, nearly 30 percent of those surveyed completely or somewhat agree with the statement: If elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves even if it requires taking violent actions.

The notion of taking violent actions if elected leaders fail to act was more prominent among Republicans, 39 percent, but 17 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents also supported the idea.

These findings follow another Survey Center poll that discovered a growing sense of viewing opposing parties as legitimate threats. About 75 percent of Republicans say Democratic policies pose a clear and present danger, while 64 percent of Democrats say the same about Republican policies. That is a 20 percent and 10 percent uptick from the view Republicans and Democrats had of each other as recently as 2017, respectively.

In a piece for Business Insider describing the groups polls, Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life and a research fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, raised the alarm about what these attitudes suggest.

In the wake of the Capitol uprising, we have been forced to reckon with the uncomfortable truth that political violence is no longer a theoretical concern, he wrote. If political leaders weaponize concerns about demographic change and undermine trust in democratic institutions, some members of the public may seek to achieve their political goals through non-democratic means including the use of force.

Im not sure where that leaves us. Its all just a deeply disturbing position.

But hope is something you give to yourself during the dark times, so Im just going to hope that cooler heads prevail in the end. I hope every Democrat, Republican and independent is a bit more mindful of the rhetoric we use when we talk about politics. Because whether its Tuesdays election or the election in November 2022, political violence is a reality we should all hope to avoid.

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Column: Political violence is a growing fear; let's watch the rhetoric during elections - The San Diego Union-Tribune