SAN DIEGO — You're not crazy. But you can be forgiven for thinking that. After all, there is a lot of crazy going around — especially in Washington after the midterm elections.

The same guy who told MAGA that he would be their "retribution" now fears that Democrats will exact retribution against MAGA. President Donald Trump likes to go low, but now he seems to be urging the party that will soon be in charge of both houses of Congress to take the high road. And the same Republican Party that built its brand on accountability when it came to persecuting, and often prosecuting, Trump's enemies (former FBI director James Comey, former national security adviser John Bolton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, et al.) now acts like it is allergic to the word.

Meanwhile, Democrats are coming up with excuses to avoid doing the right thing. The American people don't want months of hearings, they say. They want lower gas prices, groceries and health care. Having spent months stoking the flames of public discontent to win elections, they are trying to put out the fire they helped start. Democrats are buying into a false choice. Should they focus on affordability or accountability? They don't get it. They have to work on both at once, or their newfound power will fade away. The nation demands a reckoning for evil conjured up by Trump.

What is now on display is the dark side of the Democratic Party. Democrats find people on the margins (Black, Latino, immigrant, working class, LGBTQ, etc.), get them fired up, and use them to win elections. Then, when they get power, they abandon them and leave them on the margins. Democrats are much better at manipulating people than they are at delivering for them.

In 1992, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton celebrated his support from gay Americans. As president, he broke his promise to end the ban on gays in the military. In the end, Clinton's compromise of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was an insult. To this day, some of the gay powerbrokers who helped elect Clinton — such as media and music mogul David Geffen — remember that betrayal.

In 2008, in a speech to the National Council of La Raza, Barack Obama said that the immigration system was broken "when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing." As president, Obama became the "deporter-in-chief." He removed more than 3 million people. During the Obama years, many children came home from school to find a parent missing.

In 2020 — after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer — Democrat Joe Biden courted Black voters by promising police reform. In the end, hemmed in by police unions, Biden gave up on legislation and instead issued a flimsy executive order that did next to nothing. Later, Trump revoked that order.

History teaches us that, when Democrats promise you something, you always need to make sure you get it in writing and have the document notarized.

In the present day, as the Hamlets on the Hill wring their hands and work through their indecisiveness, Democrats would be wise to follow the lead of a California congressman who gets it. He understands the consequences to Democrats if there are no subpoenas, investigations, indictments and prosecutions.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., is on fire. On Election Day, Garcia — who will likely be the next chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — took to social media to urge everyone in Trumplandia to "lawyer up." The next day, he said he planned investigations into four areas: the "grift" of the Trump family, the "inhumane" immigration enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), corporate corruption generating "record profits" for CEOs, and files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

All that saber-rattling caught the attention of Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said that members of Garcia should be worried about the consequences of looking where they shouldn't look.

Undaunted, Garcia has pledged that he will proceed as planned. Accountability matters, he said, especially to the victims.

This sounds like a real leader. How did he get in here?

Garcia is absolutely correct. There is a moral imperative to investigate and bring the guilty parties to justice. When there is no accountability for wrongdoing, then what we're really telling the victims is that they don't matter as much as keeping the peace.

Have we already forgotten what the activists taught us? No justice, no peace.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Dyana Wing So at Unsplash