The mess that is Candace, January 19th, 2026.

Introduction.

Up to a point, you can really understand the behavior of those many people who had friendships

and connections with the folks at Turning Point USA, as well as a friendship in connection with

Candace Owens.

These people were caught in the middle, you know.

When the controversy first broke out, it seemed to make initial sense that some folks

would simply want to say, look, I have friends on both sides of this thing.

But there comes a point.

Suppose you went to a cocktail party hosted by one of your friends. And suppose further that another

friend of yours came to the party as well, had too much to drink, and as the evening wore on,

she became more and more erratic. First she screamed at the hostess, then she threw three

cocktail glasses at one of the servers, then she started telling people about the beetle people

that were crawling around in her brain. Then it got really weird.

Now, suppose that someone asked you to intervene. Somebody needed to take your friend home.

There comes a point where it is no longer possible to say that you are friends with both the

hostess and with this particular guest and that you really think you shouldn't take sides,

that you should remain neutral. Nope, no dice. If you tried that trick,

I would argue that by such a point in the proceedings, the one thing you could not honestly say is

that you were one of that woman's friends. Actual friends don't watch a disintegration like that

and do nothing. Neither can they wait until the implosion is complete, with nothing left but a

smoking crater, and then acknowledge that they had been a tad bit worried a little while earlier. There may have been some signs. Some signs? What does she have to do? Bark at the wind? Chew on the carpet? Yes, and the parable is about an actual someone, lest you think I exaggerate. Many others have tried to hide behind a rationalization that goes something like this. You know, I don't agree with

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