Are We Entering A True Danger Zone?

Monday, May 11, 2026

On Saturday we looked briefly at a piece on how the Far Left has used the internet and small donations to capture the Democratic Party.  On Sunday we looked at a recent commencement address from Nancy Pelosi and  just how over-the-top superlative her rhetoric has become.  Today we come upon a rather startling statistic (HT: Instapundit), “25% of “very liberal” Americans say violence can be justified to achieve political goals compared with 3% of “very conservative” Americans.”  One of the two major American political parties is moving towards the very liberal end of the spectrum with increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric and a strong inclination to violence to achieve its ends.  That sounds like a recipe for a problem to me.

All of this comes at a time when the last standing bulwark of reason in this nation – The Supreme Court – is under attack from within in a deeply personal and unprofessional manner.

These harsh charges occasioned a stinging and well-deserved rebuttal from Justice Samuel Alito, but, merits aside, the tenor and substance of the Jackson dissent capture the mindset of a left that is increasingly determined to destroy the Supreme Court in order to save it.

These are very real signs that a nation designed very purposefully and thoughtfully to flex with public opinion in order to avoid the upheavals of revolution and civil war may be approaching that brink.

Our nation is indeed highly flexible, but it is also a limited government and there is where the problems arise.  The founders presumed there would be common understandings of things fundamental and therefore the government could leave those matters uncontrolled, or up to local government so that people could choose where to live in accordance with their personal understandings.

Of course, we have already had one Civil War.  That occurred when one of those differing understandings, slave-holding, became an issue so imbued with morality that it could not be left unaddressed on the federal level.  And here we see efforts to create such moral trappings through ever increasingly vigorous rhetoric and by using the internet to gather the like-minded on issues of far less obvious import – morally or otherwise.

This is happening in no small part because the non-governmental institutions that the Founders thought would preserve the common understandings have abandoned their efforts at such preservation.  They have instead cast themselves as agents of change, fostering our disagreements, not permitting reasoned debate about them.

The question is whether the current state of affairs marks a high tide.  Clearly this administration and this Supreme Court are trying to make sure that it is and turn things back.  The Court is trying to turn back in a color-blind direction – which is what has KBJ in such an uproar.  The administration is dismantling much of the administrative state that has fostered this mess.  The continued failures of far left governance (think California and the mess that is building up in New York) are demonstrating just how bad things can be.  It appears the nation has been stretched, but the elasticity the Founders built into the system is working and pulling us back within reason.

But I wonder.  The Founders could not have possibly foreseen the internet and its power to gather minorities into active groups.  What was once crazy and ignored is now just another Reddit thread – soon to be organized into action at the earliest opportunity.  It is possible the internet has changed the political physics.  The pendulum that at one time could be counted upon to decrease the amplitude of its swing as energy dissipated now seems capable of finding new energy and increasing the amplitude of its swing ever more.  Once that amplitude gets large enough, things start breaking.

And one party seems bound-and-determined to keep adding energy to the pendulum’s swing.

The answer, I think, lies with restoring the non-governmental institutions designed to preserve our common understandings.  Our hope lies with all those kids coming back to church these days.  The real question is whether church is up to the task of receiving and fostering them.