There have been tumultuous times in our country, passionate debates, and even a civil war that have all defined who we are as a nation.  Yet we have survived and thrived.  Now, more than ever, we need to remember this fact, because as has been evident for some time, we are a nation once again deeply divided.  It is this division we need to address and fix, and then we need to move beyond division to make America great again.

And no, that’s not just a campaign slogan of Donald Trump.  Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, and Harry Truman all used that phrase, or something close to it.  Demonstrating that for most of our lives, this has been the dream for America, the same one that our founders envisioned.

Weeks ago, this was a screen shot captured from The Drudge Report.  Here it is.

This is a snapshot of how more than half of Americans feel right now.  And it’s not just on the Drudge Report.  A recently released Pew Poll (not known for conservative bias), showed how some 82% of the country now believes they either have, or are now in the process of achieving what is known as the American Dream.   That’s extraordinary considering the same poll showed that during the Obama years some 60% of Americans were saying the American Dream was virtually dead, that they saw themselves and their children incapable of achieving it.

Let’s speak of the political divide, and how it is affecting this.  And it is a great divide, just not how we normally would have understood it.

First to those in the Republican Party, once the standard bearers for great principles.  The ideal of abolishing slavery was a hallmark, and should be a proud achievement.   Since Reagan, the principles of liberty, strength, morality, economic strength, military preparedness and American Exceptionalism have graced the platforms, and the principles of the party.

Unfortunately, corruption within has short circuited Reagan’s reaffirmation of those principles.  Corruption, timidity, and pretending to stand for these principles have reigned supreme.  In the face of a barrage of media inspired anti-American rhetoric, and the Democratic Party’s effective use of Alinsky tactics against so much that was good, the (R) party lost its way. 

It is a ghost of what it could have been.  It could have been the party that stood for the principles that brought that screen shot from the Drudge Report.  It could have been the party of Make America Great Again, and instead it navel gazes as America passes it by.   It also tuts and clucks politically correct notions like a worn-out puppet every time the Democrat/media complex needs it to, totally unaware of its own spineless ineffectiveness.   Totally unware of its ghoulish looking Stockholm Syndrome.   

Every time.

Look at how they have handled the Roy Moore situation.

They could have stood with their base, but no, they stood with the Democrat/media complex.  Willingly.  Brazenly.

They could have been principled and said there is, at best, sketchy evidence from decades ago.  They could have waited before passing judgment.  But no, the Cowardly Lion just folded.  No character, no vision, nothing but mealy-mouthed platitudes.

Didn’t they remember the accusations against John McCain in 2008?  Couldn’t they remember all the same accusations against Trump in 2016?  Those accusations that were clearly nothing but campaign smears once the smoke cleared?

Am I the only one who remembers how thin, and calculated, and orchestrated, those accusations were?

So why would these new ones against Judge Moore be anything else?   They’re from the same playbook.

Heck, if somehow, miraculously, these are proven true, the worst that could happen – the GOP remained united behind Judge Moore -- is that he resigns and we get a Republican governor to appoint a decent (R) Senator.  Instead, the (R) fools would allow the other party to win.  And allow their base to be savaged.   

Repeal Obamacare.  Fail.

Tax Reform agenda.  Fail.

Understanding the base and furthering what they commonsensically want.  Fail.

A party this out of touch needs a serious time of self-reflection.  And re-direction.  And it either changes or falls.  I really don’t think they understand how angry their voter base is.   At them.

And now to the Democratic Party:

What they have become is so far from the ideals in the Declaration, or the Constitution, it’s embarrassing.  Rather than stand for the ideals of JFK, they have become the party of the Clintons.  Tawdry, greedy, corrupt, America blaming, and quite soulless.  They stand for little if anything.  Hillary is the perfect face for them. 

You think I’m overplaying this?  If you think that, you haven’t been paying attention to the great, degenerative crackup on the left over the past year.  A crack up that began long ago.  They fell for their own propaganda.

They are not going to win on race baiting.

They are not going to win by projecting their own sexual travesties and failed culture on the other party.

They are not going to win by championing anti free enterprise rhetoric.

They are not going to win by being anti-American.

They are not going to win by being anti-military.  Or kneeling against the national anthem.

They are a party in full retreat.

And the (R) elites still grovel at their feet.  Shakespeare could not have written a more perfect tragedy.

Prediction:  Both sets of party elites are going to lose.  It’s now a matter of time.  The Democratic Party is in the midst of massive failure, proven by their loss of power.  They will not win much in 2018.  They stand for little, and betting on the Clinton machine as their moral guiding light has neutered them, for now.  They won nothing they didn’t already have a week ago, just the same self-entitlement to continue to demagogue.

As to the Republicans as led by their “elites.” They too have failed.  The examples of Flake, Corker, McCain, McConnel, and so many others are beyond contempt.

And hope.  Slinking off quietly might be the best we can expect from this group.

A realignment not only is coming, it’s actually here. And neither set of party elites understands it.

I like that.  The alternative is here, and compelling.  And it is unseen, and winning.