As you watch the chaos in Minneapolis, where a completely out of control force is literally killing American citizens in the streets who are not threatening them, it’s worth asking- did we need to be here? Was there an alternative? Could just a few people have avoided this mess altogether?

The answer is yes.

Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans could have put this all to rest after January 6th, 2021. Just a couple of weeks later, with Trump gone from Washington after his defeat, the GOP could have given the Democrats 17 votes to convict him in his Senate Impeachment trial. He could have been barred from ever holding office again. Sure, the hardline base would have hated it, but he would’ve faded out of power, with no chance to return. With the way Biden’s term went, and with Harris as the candidate, they may have won back the White House anyway. They’d have their trifecta right now, but with less chaos. They had a choice. But they’ve been broken since Barack Obama won in 2008. The establishment of the Republican Party threw open the party to radicals almost immediately after Obama’s inauguration. This was always their logical endpoint.

I think most of the criticism of the Democratic Party is shortsighted and stupid. We are criticizing them for doing what an American political party is supposed to do, respecting norms and trying to improve the country through the legislative process and winning elections. Nowhere in the American political system do we expect members of Congress to ride in like knights on horses to do battle with the opponent. With that said, I guess I would say the problem is that a lot of the Democrats aren’t willing to defend themselves from anyone. Seven House members voted to pass ICE funding this week. Eight Senate Democrats forfeited health insurance subsidies for millions of paying customers under the Affordable Care act to cave in and fund the government in December. They have not warmed up to the reality that giving Trump an inch means losing a mile. They should have learned that from their own far-left though. The decision to allow Bernie Sanders to run in a party he is not a member of in 2016 was a mistake. The decision by party leaders to capitulate to extremist ideas and rhetoric has only done more damage. We’ve watched “normie” Dems embrace every stupid idea from abandoning any border enforcement to “defund the police,” and watched Trump’s vote share increase from 2016 to 2020, and then again in 2024. Even Joe Biden, the ultimate moderate, tried to appease these people. It failed. It cost him his Presidency.

And for what? Let’s be honest, the left may or may not have actually had enough more votes to tip the balance of the 2024 Election to Kamala Harris, but given how very close it actually was, they probably did. The number of votes for Jill Stein, or write-ins for fictional candidates, and the crossovers in places like Dearborn. You can’t lump all of the millions who didn’t vote that did in 2020 into one pot, but you know at least some of them were people who just couldn’t be bothered. Whether it was Gaza, or people mad that she “embraced” transgender folks, or people that just “didn’t like her,” they stayed home, voted for him, or voted protest, they made the difference. She was so close. Yet she either was “too left,” or “was a genociding cop.” They didn’t back her. She lost.

Here’s the thing though- what you’re watching in Minneapolis now, that’s the consequence of it. You fucked around, now you are finding out. Trump told us he was going to do this, his backers wrote Project 2025 as a blueprint for this Presidency. Anyone who believed him that he didn’t know what it was is a willful idiot. The only person who had a chance to beat him on the ballot was Kamala Harris. There was no third outcome. Now Jared Kushner is going to turn Gaza into luxury condos. Now ICE is deporting young children. Kyiv is suffering a brutal Winter as Russia commits war crimes against their people. Medicaid is being decimated. The Department of Education is closed. Trump’s name is on the Kennedy Center. She only really needed a percentage point or so in four out of seven swing states, and none of this would be going on. Was uncommitted worth it? No. Anyone saying otherwise just refuses to admit their truth.