Forget about the charming days of partisan divide; we’re now in a full-throttle battle for the soul of the nation.

Do I overstate? Perhaps, but I’m not sure overstatement is possible after the bedlam we’ve witnessed in the days since the asphyxiation-death of George Floyd while in police custody. Since that day, when a Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, we’ve learned what mayhem looks like.

From the ashes of chaos, a narrative has taken shape that systemic racism is at the root of what happened to Floyd. A long and unchecked history of police killings of unarmed black men drives this narrative and many people are only now grasping its power for the first time.

Georgia jogger Ahmaud Arbery literally was hunted by three white swamp dwellers – a father-son duo (one, an ex-cop) and their neighbor – who rammed poor Arbery with a truck before shooting him three times. How should we process such inconceivable savagery?

Some may have found release in lighting fires, others in rioting and looting. It’s impossible to know at this point what was organic and what was organized. It may not matter. But how we respond does matter. The election will likely turn on the outcome.

In some respects, I can sympathize with those city officials who allowed the looting to continue rather than risk confrontations that could result in more shootings and more dead bodies. Merchandise can be replaced, after all. People cannot. But, then, my business wasn’t destroyed. What about the people who lost theirs?

The forces behind these events – whether trouble-making randos, committed resisters, the far-left Antifa, or cops that can’t or won’t intervene — have collectively managed to create a facsimile of what white supremacists have forever longed for: deep civil unrest. Those are conditions that benefit Donald Trump.

And just as importantly, who gets to talk? Not white people, apparently, unless they’re willing to check their privilege at least in the view of some who demonstrate. The white-privilege meme continues to circulate on social media, often as an accusation. We need everyone in this conversation because fairness is a two way street.

Hysteria doesn’t travel with reason. Recently, some voices have begun calling for the wholesale elimination of police departments. They’re joking, right? Well, weirdly, no. Already, three Los Angeles city council members have filed a motion to cut the LA police department’s budget by $100 million to $150 million for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. I tuned into MSNBC’s Joy Reid Show on Thursday and tried to follow a discussion about rethinking the whole idea of law enforcement. What would the alternative be, exactly? Oh, right. Anarchy.

If things continue, we’ll soon see greater insecurity on the part of some citizens who might welcome a National Guard presence. Or, more likely, we could see a rise in vigilantism, the threat of which is already visible in some cities where armed citizens – Second Amendment gauchos – are taking it upon themselves to “protect the citizenry,” if not truly, then at least symbolically. How soon before some homegrown soldier decides to open fire on a rioter vandalizing a building? We’re a hair-trigger from another layer of disaster.

The authoritarian temptation is real for some and is a consequence that can only be avoided if protesters, with the help of police, rout out the anarchists and infiltrators, who tend to be mostly white. If the violence continues, so will the sentiment that this is a country out of control, and that only a law and order strongman can reel things back in.

The sentiments expressed by protesters are real; law enforcement reform is crucial going forward. Bad cops have to be exposed and removed. Chauvin was named in multiple misconduct complaints for various offenses of abuse or overreach. He should have been dismissed from his duties long ago. If he had been, George Floyd might still be alive. But we need police departments and the good cops who work there to stay.

All of this makes this moment the key turning point of 2020. If anarchists want to create a lawless environment for the further degradation of democracy, we must work together to stop them. It’s worth pondering who would seek this result. Foreign actors, perhaps, as Attorney General William Barr has suggested? Whatever their identity, they either really want Trump to be re-elected — or else, they’re very, very dangerous. And perhaps both.

© 2020 Washington Post Writers