When you look hard at Minneapolis, you come away a bit queasy. When you think about what the Left did to a major Midwestern American city in opposition to both Donald Trump and the Rule of Law, it’s hard not to think, These people are freakin’ nuts.

Today, I’m here to tell you that it’s all part of a plan, and that they’re not as nutso as they seem.

It began last year, as soon as the Democrats had caught their collective breath after Donald Trump’s 100-day blitz. Their ultimate goal has always been to retake the House in November. That’s all the Democrats have between now and January 20, 2029, when Trump leaves office for good. Their short-term goal, then, is to sow as much discord and chaos as possible, to hurt the American economy as much as possible, and to make sure American voters are as frazzled and fatigued as possible when they head to the polls this November.

Remember when the Democrats shut down the government for 43 days last year, ostensibly over ObamaCare? It wasn’t about ObamaCare. It was about sowing chaos and inflicting pain upon the American people, just like this latest DHS shutdown is doing. If the Democrats succeed in making our lives miserable, they believe that the American people will reward them with control of the House, which would allow them to hamstring President Trump and his administration for the last two years of his term. They might be right. The power-starved Democrats want chaos because they know it hurts Trump. And they couldn’t give a rip about the American people.

To be fair, some of this chaos is self-inflicted. Attacking Iran to remove its nuclear and ballistic missile threats was the right decision at the right time after the right amount of negotiation. But it has certainly introduced uncertainty into the markets and at the gas pump.

But Operation Chaos isn’t some new ploy, some novel tactic. It’s as old as humanity itself. Sowing discord, doubt, and chaos is the devil’s work. If Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, then what the Democrats are doing is certainly the opposite.

If you think this invocation of our Lord and Savior is unseemly, my colleague Nate Jackson reminds us: “He called his opponents white-washed tombs and pits of vipers and fashioned a whip and overturned their tables. He wasn’t afraid of a fight.”

Ann Coulter wrote about this 15 years ago. The Democrats are Demonic. They’re the Mob. They’re the French Revolutionaries without the guillotine and the wicker baskets full of severed heads:

A mob is an irrational, childlike, and often violent organism that derives its energy from the group. Intoxicated by messianic goals, the promise of instant gratification, and adrenaline-pumping exhortations, mobs create mayhem, chaos, and destruction, leaving behind a smoldering heap of wreckage.

It seems bizarre to say that a major American political party has become a mob, but just consider their behavior. And just listen to the devilish lies that undergird their messaging: “House Democrats just launched our petition to fund TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard,” they posted last week. “This Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security has gone on long enough. Republicans must join us.”

This Republican shutdown? Really?

First, they sucker-punched the American people by shutting down all these federal agencies. Now they’re blaming the Republicans while pretending to be the adults in the room. How stupid do they think the American people are? Plenty stupid.

But the lies, they keep a-comin’. And they’re coordinated. One Democrat after another has been decrying Donald Trump’s efforts to alleviate the TSA bottleneck at airports by introducing ICE agents. How? By warning the American people that they’ll be killed.

As Chris Bray writes at The Federalist: “They shut down a bunch of government agencies, then say ‘Republican shutdown’ over and over again. They create giant security lines at airports, then tell voters to be angry that mean Republicans are doing this to you. Deliberately inflicting pain on Americans, Democrats say that this is what happens when Republicans are in charge: Now do you see what happens to America during a Donald Trump presidency?”

Indeed, everyone from Da Nang Dick Blumenthal to Hapless Hakeem Jeffries is smearing our lCE agents, warning dim-witted Americans that these “untrained individuals” are “dragging parents from children, detaining citizens, brutalizing families, shooting and even killing.”

Lefty blogger Rachael Bade let the mask slip on Monday, writing: “After Trump floated the idea this weekend — sending immigration enforcement to help with long airport lines caused by the shutdown — I checked in with a bunch of Democratic lawmakers and top staffers. Their response wasn’t just unfazed; at times, it was downright giddy.”

Got that? They’re giddy. Because Operation Chaos is working to perfection.

Some of you are skeptical. I’m sure of it. You’re thinking, Andrews is giving the Democrats way too much credit. This can’t be coordinated. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and Sandy Cortez simply aren’t that smart. Which is certainly true. But they aren’t calling the shots. This chaos is the brainchild of far savvier behind-the-scenes operators — people who know that the party in power tends to be rewarded when there’s a sense that things are going well, that things are under control.

By sowing chaos, the Democrats and their leftist brethren are infusing us with uneasiness, attempting to demoralize us. And if you don’t think it’s coordinated, think again. How else to explain the similarity of their talking points?

I can see through it, and so can you. But what about all the folks who don’t pay much attention to politics, those who believe what they see on CNN and hear on NPR and feel at the gas pump? What about all the people who head to the airport three hours early and still miss their flight? Who will they be inclined to blame on Tuesday, November 3?

It’s part tantrum, part extortion, and thoroughly diabolical. What the Democrats are saying is: Vote for us, or we’ll keep wrecking the country.

What a sick message to be sending.