When Local Government Fails, the Constitution Does Not

There are moments when a nation has to decide whether laws are real—or merely aspirational.

That moment has arrived in Minneapolis.

What is happening there is no longer protest in any meaningful civic sense. It is organized, sustained violence aimed at stopping the enforcement of federal law. When crowds attack federal officers, torch property, blockade neighborhoods, and dare authorities to intervene, the issue is no longer political disagreement. It is coercion by force.

And coercion by force is exactly what the Insurrection Act was designed to confront.

This isn’t about rhetoric. It isn’t about tone. And it certainly isn’t about optics. It’s about whether civil authority still governs American cities—or whether it yields when challenged hard enough.

Local leadership has not merely struggled. It has failed.

When mayors plead instead of enforce, when governors hesitate instead of restore order, and when police are overwhelmed or politically restrained into paralysis, authority doesn’t vanish. It transfers. That is not authoritarianism. That is constitutional design.

President Donald Trump is right to raise the Insurrection Act—and wrong to delay its use.

The Act is not a threat. It is not a stunt. It is a constitutional backstop for moments when local government can no longer or will no longer perform its most basic function: maintaining public order. History is clear on this point. The Insurrection Act has been invoked to enforce desegregation, to stop riots, and to reestablish lawful control when states abdicated responsibility.

It has never been about tyranny.

It has always been about preserving the Republic when it is under physical assault.

Let’s dispense with the talking points. Peaceful protest happens every day in America without federal troops in sight. What is happening now involves arson, intimidation, and direct attacks on agents of the federal government—particularly U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—whose obligation is to enforce laws passed by Congress, not negotiate them with mobs.

At that point, this is no longer a local matter.

It becomes a national one.

The real danger is not invoking the Insurrection Act.

The real danger is signaling that it will never be used—no matter how severe the breakdown becomes.

That lesson would be catastrophic.

Because once violence is seen to work—once it becomes clear that sustained disorder can override law—every grievance learns the same tactic. Minneapolis doesn’t remain isolated. It becomes precedent.

A government that cannot protect its officers cannot protect its citizens.

A government that refuses to enforce its laws forfeits legitimacy.

And a republic that yields to mobs does not remain a republic for long.

Invoking the Insurrection Act is not about punishment.

It is about containment.

It is about restoration.

It is about reaffirming that the rule of law is not optional, negotiable, or subject to veto by fire.

Order is not oppression.

Law is not fascism.

And when local government fails, the Constitution does not.