In the movie No Country for Old Men there is a scene in a gas station convenience store that is so tense it is viscerally uncomfortable to watch. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) plays a drug cartel hitman that enjoys his work. Chigurh enters the store to pay for gas and the clerk, an old man offends him by asking what he thinks are too many questions. After menacing the old man for a few minutes Chigurh reaches into his pocket and pulls out a coin, flips it in the air and says, “call it friendo.” When the old man wants to know what he stands to win. Chigurh replies, “everything.”

Over the course of my twenty five year political journalism career I’ve made the case that the electability argument was at best nebulous and at worst deliberately misleading many times. The candidate that is most electable is effectively the candidate whose policies you prefer. It has largely been a go-to argument for self proclaimed “centrists” trying to sow fear of progressive candidates whose policies threaten the status quo they depend upon.

Full disclosure, I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and I voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. Neither was my ideal or preferred candidate but there was never any chance I would vote for Donald Trump. If I could trade either Clinton or Harris for Trump today I would do so without hesitation. But I can’t of course and that’s the point. The problem was that in places like Bucks County, Pennsylvania or Columbia County, Wisconsin or Baldwin County, Georgia the voters were not nearly so sure.

The voters in those swing counties and states are often “persuadable” voters, those who can go either way. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the most dangerous voter in America is the voter that went for Obama and then flipped to Trump. That voter believes in one thing, personality. You can’t get to that voter with ideology, policy or logic. They want a candidate they like and they feel they can relate to. That in essence equates to electoral Russian roulette, you get what you get.

Why was Joe Biden, who has charisma of a turnip able to succeed in defeating Trump where Clinton and Harris could not? Let’s just say that being a white man apparently didn’t hurt. It’s also worth noting that both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris cited gender bias as a significant factor.

It’s also worth noting that the Democratic primary process in recent election cycles has been compromised to the extent that Democratic leaning voters have become disaffected. In 2016 Bernie Sanders supporters were so angry about what they viewed as a rigged nominating process that they filed suit. In 2024 there was no Democratic nominating process at all. Although Democratic leadership argued that a nominating process was not possible, it actually probably was and the lack of it likely accounted for the lackluster Democratic turnout on election day.

What was Chigurh talking about when told the old man that everything was at stake in the coin toss? Everything meant that death was equivalent to everything the man had ever had or would ever have. Everything.

The MAGA Republicans are also playing for everything. Their aim is to cancel the American Democratic Republic outright and convert what has been the epicenter of the Democratic world into a corrupt autocratic regime. Women’s rights, civil rights, voting rights, labor rights you name it they would all be converted to no rights at all and that might very well be just the beginning.

The time has come to win at the presidential election level. Absolutely, positively, without fail. That’s going to require sacrifice by everyone in the center-left coalition. It starts with a free and fair Democratic nominating process. That’s the proving ground, the launchpad and it must be transparently organic. Whoever comes out of that nominating process on top must be accepted as the best candidate.

What is at stake? Everything.