The Minnesota flashpoint is significant not because it’s unprecedented but because it could normalize direct confrontation between state and federal authority in the eyes of millions. That kind of precedent rarely gets walked back voluntarily.

This isn’t just about who’s in charge politically. It’s about whether the mechanisms for resolving disputes peacefully are still seen as legitimate by enough of the population. When that legitimacy is gone violence turns from being unthinkable to being rationalized and eventually expected. Once expectation sets in escalation becomes hard to arrest without a clear decisive event that shifts the narrative.