The other day, Martha Raddatz of ABC News asked Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance about gang violence in Colorado. Listening to the exchange, the core reason why modern left-wing politics so often ends in disaster suddenly dawned on me.

Like a ring made not of gold but broken plastic, one tawdry error rules all the foolery of the Democratic Party, and will render America desolate if we let it have its way. The fundamental left-wing faux pas is to let windows break, then leave them that way.

A Revealing Conversation

The conversation touched on Donald Trump’s claim that Venezuelan gangs have “taken over” multiple apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, and maybe the whole city. Vance defended Trump’s comments, leading to this exchange:  

Raddatz: “Senator Vance, I’m going to stop you because I know exactly what happened …. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes. And the mayor said our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns. A handful of problems.”

Vance: “Only — Martha, do you hear yourself? ‘Only a handful’ of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’s open border? …. We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again. And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are, you’re going to have problems like this. Kamala Harris’s 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump’s successful border policies, we knew this stuff would happen …” 

Raddatz: “Okay. Let’s just end that with they did not invade or take over the city as Donald Trump said. I want to move on to just —”

Vance: “A few apartment complexes, no big deal.”

Broken Window Syndrome

Most commentary focused on the specifics of Trump’s claim, or in rare cases on the bigger problem that Trump and Vance decry: unchecked illegal immigration. But the problem with Raddatz’s remarks, and with Democratic policy in general, is much broader than that. Her attitude helps explain a broad spectrum of policies based in an attitude of neglect, of refusal to tidy up and take care of “small” matters, that would turn America into a wasteland if we let that carelessness have its way. 

Raddatz’s attitude reminded me of a criminological approach that takes its name from busted window panes, of which some could probably be found in those apartments:

“Broken Window” Theory, first studied by Philip Zimbardo and introduced by George Kelling and James Wilson, holds that visible indicators of disorder, such as vandalism, loitering, and broken windows, invite criminal activity and should be prosecuted.

The National Debt and Foreign Wars

Take our national debt. (Please, take it!) Ronald Reagan used to joke, “A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Nowadays that joke seems quaint. Americans now owe the world far more than our gross national product. Each family of four now owes more to our creditors than the price of the average American home, thanks to federal profligacy. Yet in a time of peace free of major disaster, we keep spending mountains of cash we don’t actually have!

Each of those mountains of cash began as a molehill.  

Each little bill or hill, each “generous” promise from politicians to pay for “free” drugs, schooling, more veteran’s benefits, or high-speed trains, is like letting Venezuelan gangsters take over some little apartment in Aurora. Who cares about a two-bit complex in some town named for lights in the sky? The cost of neglecting a few obscure apartments, or of paying off some small group of constituents from the federal IOU bank, seems tiny. So stone by stone, we kick our Olympus Mons of debt down the road to the grandkids. (Who can’t vote yet, or haven’t even been born.)

Or consider how Joe Biden seemed to accept the notion of foreign armies making “minor incursions” into Ukraine, shortly before Putin lined up an army and attacked across a broad front. Biden no doubt thought, as the lawyer that he is, that a minor compromise was in the best interests of both Russia and the U.S.. But he didn’t realize that to an invader, a “minor incursion” is like a small crack in an earthen dam that, when filled by raging lust for territory, washes soil away on all sides until the dam gives – or invasion is resisted at great cost.

Of course, the incursions the Left has let into America, which Vance decried, are not “minor.” Millions of strangers have poured in across our southern and now northern borders without “showing IDs.” Fussing about an invisible line seems like such a Puritanical hangup! Most immigrants just want better lives for themselves! Why be such sticklers for unseen borders and pieces of paper? Have some compassion! If a few apartment tenants get shot here and there along the way, look at the big picture!

While legitimate criticisms of the Broken Window hypothesis do exist, if you lock up petty felons, you also wind up taking serious felons off the street as well, because little crimes lead to big crimes.

To cite a biblical example, why did Judas betray Jesus? Was it a coincidence that before that, he was pilfering from the offering box? Maybe just a little at a time, and he swore he would pay it back some day. But then perhaps his debts started to mount, and his personal finances grew desperate. Stung by guilt, he began to notice things about the other disciples — who spoke a different dialect of Aramaic, and perhaps sometimes seemed to exclude him — or maybe even about the Master that rubbed him wrong. No doubt it felt good to balance the weight of an uneasy conscience with a grudge to justify his thefts.

Another Slippery Slope

Broken Window theory also may help explain America’s growing infatuation with abortion and gender dysphoria.  

Guilt is an uncomfortable feeling that people often drown in bigger sins. Lust (Jesus warned) leads to adultery. Adultery is covered up with abortion, abandonment, infanticide, or in the case of King David, murder. Abortion, a natural consequence of the Sexual Revolution, enticed the Left to lie about the Constitution. Smash!

Love was shattered, then babies, then our founding law, then healthy family relations. The revolution against Christian sexual morality quickly led to a revolt against Christian compassion for the “least of these,” those little guys in the womb. The shattering of ethical norms ultimately encouraged a social climate in which the superstition that we can change our gender on whim or with the help of chemicals and a knife was ultimately embraced with passion, and suggestions to the contrary met with righteous anger.   

Such destructive revolutions begin with “little sins” allowed to have their way, because who wants to be a Puritan? As one who is keenly aware of beauty and who used to take shots at beer bottles as a boy, I understand. It’s easier to throw a rock at time-tested institutions than to build one. Plus, you get to hear glass tinkle when you score a hit.  

Someone Who Understands Building

Admittedly, the Republican running for president right now has allowed himself numerous “indiscretions” over the years. He, too, is a product of the Sexual Revolution, or to be more accurate, a counter-revolution that returned playboys like him to a pre-Christian order of license and exploitation. Nor is his record on spending one of restraint.

One keeps hoping he has grown out of his worst predilections. At the very least, however, Donald Trump is a builder, and builders prefer windows without broken shards.

Trump also praises walls. Walls leave no gaps for the little incursions that lead to big invasions. A wall directs human traffic and trafficking elsewhere. Come in legally or not at all. Don’t spray-paint “Kill the Cops” on buildings. Don’t insert little white lies into the Constitution to make it say what you wish it would say. Don’t shoot even poorly directed rockets at our friends, because you won’t like what happens when you do.

Yes, small apartment complexe in suburban towns where insignificant citizens live should matter to the president. And yes, the Biden-Harris administration has betrayed America by failing to walk that wall and keep it secure. But that failure seems to be a symptom of a bankrupt ideology that is wreaking havoc on families, foreign policy, and national finances alike: an unhealthy willingness to let little problems fester and metastasize.

When it comes to broken windows (in someone else’s house), or a few burning buildings (in someone else’s neighborhood), the Democrats are simply too tolerant for America’s good.

David Marshall, an educator and writer, holds a doctoral degree in Christian thought and Chinese tradition. His most recent book is The Case for Aslan: Evidence for Jesus in the Land of Narnia.