Far too many are treating this as business as usual. And you're absolutely right, the whiplash has led many voters to think this is just another toxic political cycle.

It doesn't help that the Democrats are only slowly waking up that this isn't business as usual. The few remaining legacy Republicans have finally been jolted by Trump's claim Ukraine started the war. But is it enough to force them to rethink this disastrous course? And will they have the power to effect change?

The Patel nomination, to me, is the line in the sand. If he is confirmed then we lose any legal enforcement way to intervene. I worked at the FBI. Those are principled, hard working people who skew moderately to very conservative. These are not Biden slaves or far-left fanatics.

Once he cleans house there and installs loyalists, we'll have a Stazi not an investigative force. The term "terrorist" will be applied to any and all who disagree with the administration . This is already being tested by calling those who protested for Gaza as such and Homan implying AOC needs to be investigated.

That will leave the military. And they pump bases so full of Fox news it's hard to say where they land. It's a diverse group and the leadership is always staunchly obedient to the President but pledges their loyalty to the constitution.

Anybody's guess what they do when the time comes, but Pete Hegseth wrote about this exact same thing in his books. Writings nobody on the senate panels questioned him about. His assumption was that the Army would rise up to root out the radical left.

These are critical moments here. And you frame the ultimate question perfectly - is it still ours to fix?

I think so. For now. The people need to claim what's theirs.