It’s a minefield out there. Our nation continues to be bombarded with ferocious challenges, from within and from the outside world (the very real need to prevent nuclear-armed terrorism as one example), confounding our leaders, compounded by political partisanship, and defying resolution.

In a sensible world, these would be receiving laser beam attention. But among those legitimately serious issues, other matters keep poking their heads up and grabbing the interest of our elected officials, the media, and ultimately the voting public. These are basically no-brainers, but they keep distracting us from the work at hand. Our real problems are tough enough already. We don’t need the added complications.

Here’s a sampling of the Left’s radical claims:

Graham Platner is a great guy. Has the political primary system ever produced a Senate candidate with more flagrantly obvious disqualifying factors? I can’t think of any. But without reiterating the now-familiar multiple red flags, to me the nonstarter is that the Platner story is 100% phony. Working class? No, he comes from a wealthy family, attended the tony Hotchkiss School, and lives in a house paid for by his father. Oyster farmer? Not really; his oyster-farming business is more of a hobby, reportedly serving only one customer: his mother’s restaurant. Leader of a vibrant new political movement? No, he just jumped on the train.

We find instead that Maine Democrats selected their senate candidate the way Hollywood creates new heart-throb movie stars — they found someone who looks and acts the part, gave him a script, and rolled out the red carpet. Now he’s gone, and they’re looking for a replacement working-class white male, via the same method and criteria. Go figure.

In fairness, we can credit Platner with one thing — he is a USMC combat veteran. But if that’s what they’re looking for, there are thousands of others available, surely including many who actually walk the talk.

President Donald Trump will cancel the midterm elections. As reported two weeks ago in CNN’s online daily What Matters, notable Democrats are sending out frantic SOS signals warning America that our elected president will finally pull the plug on democracy, just as we’d feared. They tell us the warning signs are all flashing red, that Trump is already well down the track, building his case. Sorry, folks, no more elections.

Note, this isn’t just the usual alarmist buzz from some fly-by-night nutty podcast: it’s a lead article from CNN News, presenting the words of David Axelrod, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and other notable Democrats. And it’s not the first time that this bizarre prediction has been floated. Nevertheless, it’s very hard to take seriously. My guess is that Axelrod, Wasserman Schultz, the CNN news staff, and others may have attended one too many “No Kings” rallies.

Iran is now better off than it was before the war. That’s an oft-repeated claim from Trump critics, an offshoot of the multifaceted leftist criticisms that Trump’s “war of choice” was ill-considered, unnecessary, poorly conceived, quite possibly illegal, assertions now louder than ever with the renewed hostilities.

The reason that some believe Iran is better off? It’s because they now control the Strait of Hormuz.

But help me out, please. The Strait of Hormuz is exactly where it was before the war. That gift of geography has always given Iran the opportunity — although certainly not the authority (the Strait is an international waterway) — to interfere with ships passing right by its doorstep. The war and its effect on global oil supply have made it painfully clear that the international community simply cannot allow Iran to crown itself as the Strait’s owner; and meanwhile, the U.S. is systematically neutering Iran’s pretense that it is in charge.

So why is it better off now?

Birthright citizenship makes sense. How in the world would anyone find logic in the idea that the mere physical location of a person’s birth should guarantee U.S. citizenship for life, citizenship of all of that person’s future descendants, and permissible U.S. residence for that person’s extended family? Should not circumstances of presence here (such as legality) matter? Surely our Founders and the drafters of the 14th Amendment would not have given away our treasured citizenship so casually.

It’s helpful to understand that the Supreme Court did not reach that conclusion last week. Five justices simply ruled (incorrectly, many believe) that birthright citizenship is already an established constitutional right. Stay tuned; we haven’t heard the last of this one.

In the Palestinian quest for a homeland, Hamas is the good guy. Ah, Hamas — the revolutionaries protecting stateless Palestinians from the genocidal Israelis?

Hogwash. All you really have to know about Hamas is that on October 7, 2023, the organization’s radicals planned and executed perhaps the most barbaric terrorist raid in world history, attacking multiple communities and attendees at a music festival in northern Israel, assaulting, raping, torturing, and murdering Israeli men, women, children, and even babies. Approximately 1,200 Israelis were killed (including about 800 civilians), thousands wounded, and 251 were abducted and held in captivity for use as bargaining chips and availability for additional rape and torture as desired.

Note also that in their many-year conflict with Israel, standard practice by Hamas militants has been to embed themselves in Palestinian residential areas, using noncombatant civilians as human shields from Israeli attack. It’s also helpful to keep in mind that Israel is our long-term ally, our only truly democratic ally in the Middle East, a nation built by survivors of Hitler’s mission to exterminate them, and a nation still targeted for elimination by Iran.

Regardless, it has become fashionable for many on the American Left to romanticize Hamas as freedom-seeking revolutionaries, while detesting Israel as their avowed enemy. How many anti-Israel (and essentially antisemitic) rallies have we watched over the past two years, particularly on university campuses, with protesters wearing stylish Hamas Kefyeh scarves and chanting “from the river to the sea”? It makes us wonder how some Americans decide who our enemies are and who our friends are.

Hey — socialism might work! But of course, we know that socialism is socialism, one notch away from pure communism, and a proven catastrophe every place it’s ever been tried, worldwide. Moreover, there is nothing whatsoever democratic about the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), other than its association with the extreme left wing of the political party of the same name.

Nevertheless, prominent Democratic Socialists routinely opine that capitalism just isn’t working in our country. Really? Are we not a vibrant, prosperous nation, the envy of the world, the place where everyone else (including DSA adherents) wants to live?

Notice, however, that Democratic Socialists extol the need for change but rarely speak of their political agenda. But just last week, they rolled out the DSA platform (although it’s unclear who voted for and adopted it), and it is truly bizarre: no borders, no police, no prisons, no US Senate, no judiciary, a president subordinate to Congress — and the loony list goes on. Evidently, to the DSA, “change” means scrapping our Constitution, tossing out the foundation provided by Jefferson and Madison in favor of the whims of Mandami or El Sayed.

Democratic Socialism has been growing by leaps and bounds among Democrats for the simple reason that their party has been stuck in first gear for years, with no working principle beyond hating Trump. The DSA movement feels fresh and new, but it’s not. It will inevitably collapse of its own weight — the real worry is how much damage it will cause along the way.

Now, if we can set those unnecessary distractions aside, perhaps we can get back to work on important matters.