There is an element to modern liberal theory of the world that's pure fatalism. If a Republican points out a glaring issue that is happening, the left shrugs and acts as if nothing can be done to fix it. The only fixable things are pet projects of the left - that's why they're struggling on other issues Americans see as important.

The top example here is the border. For years, Republicans blasted Democrats over Biden throwing open the border and doing little to stop illegal immigration. By the end of Biden's administration, while illegal immigrants were murdering Americans, the White House pushed back, blaming Congress for the problems at the border.

However, within weeks of Trump taking office, border enforcement improved significantly. Numbers at the border plummeted, and the ICE officials were free to do their jobs in a meaningful way. All the shoulder-shrugging Democrats did over the border was wrong.

The other big issue Democrats disagree over is crime, and as we've learned recently, political violence. Murders on trains, illegal immigrant killings, political assassins, and more, if the solution isn't gun control, Democrats shrug their shoulders.

This dynamic is known as learned helplessness: after repeated failures to influence events, people internalize the sense that no action will alter the outcome, and so disengage even when change is possible. In the case of Democrats, they've convinced themselves there's no way to stop anything.

Donald Trump rejects this notion and is sending in the National Guard into high-crime cities. Cities like Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon, are in the crosshairs of the Trump administration because they have sky-high crime statistics.

Democrats point to things like crime rates and say, "Hey, crime is falling!" This is meant to assure people that there's no problem. And it is true, the rate of crime in a place like Portland is falling.

However, when comparing Portland to the national average, a different picture emerges. "As of 2024, Portland's crime rate is 171% higher than the national average, with homelessness becoming an increasingly pressing issue."

Outside Memphis, Tennessee, Portland has the second-worst crime rate in the country. It's great that the rate is falling. That doesn't mean much when you're still among the very worst in the country. Democrats are trying to argue statistics in relation to lived reality.

Beyond the shrug Democrats give to this, there's also the problem that radical leftists side with the murderers themselves.

We've gotten a first-hand look at this over the past month. Assata Shakur, a radical political activist on the left, died in Cuba this week at 79. She's responsible for murdering a police officer in cold blood. However, because she represents the era of leftist outrage, she gets lionized on the left.

She existed in the same filth as Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground movement that sought to overthrow the United States government. Ayers got jobs in liberal academia, and Shakur died in Cuba.

The modern versions of this are Luigi Mangione, who has a sick fan club of people cheering on his killing of an innocent executive. Or those siding with Charlie Kirk's killer on college campuses.

And so we get the modern left, which ignores these issues. Bleating about "falling crime rates" has given Republicans a 22-point advantage in issue polls on crime. Five years post-pandemic, with all the expansion of talking points on policing changes needed, Americans have shifted hard in the opposite direction.

The lesson from all of this is that the issues are fixable. Often, the primary requirement is for current laws to be effectively enforced. We're not facing some new and unique forms of crime or violence, except for leftists trying to kill everyone more often.

Trump's belief that we have to enforce the laws is a correct one. He's proven that with illegal immigration and violent crime in Washington D.C. In both instances, he put boots on the ground and ordered a cleanup. Crime drops immediately in both situations.

The Democratic insistence that nothing can be done to stop evil crime from occurring is absurd. Lionizing political terrorists creates more of them. Democrats have the problems facing America and the solutions completely opposite.

Democrats free the criminals and do nothing while the innocent are harmed as a result. It's an untenable position, and the news stories are speaking for themselves. Most importantly, the solutions here are obvious, too. Democrats are putting themselves in the path of preventing solutions.

It's insane for a political party, but this is where we are. The lessons from 2024 aren't sinking in at all. It's troubling to see from a party that demands power. I expect Republicans to underperform in the midterms because that's the national rhythm to politics.

America needs real solutions. Republicans are offering them while Democrats shrug and believe in fatalism.