The election of Donald Trump to the presidency has shed a spotlight on our divisiveness. We are in the throes of a nonviolent civil war where members of families no longer speak to each other and long held friendships have been discarded. Although the Left would like to point the finger at Trump as the reason for the division, it actually began decades earlier with the takeover of the Democratic Party by socialists, communists, and multiculturalists. Their emphasis on what divides us instead of what unites us took root and blossomed at our universities, public school systems, unions, the media, and our universities. The election of Trump is a culmination bred from years of quiet resentment and silent frustration experienced by mainstream Middle America. In Trump, they saw a man who was willing to fight for their representation.

With no identity politics to cling to and no advocacy groups to lobby for them, white working/middle class stiffs who make up the masses, needed a leader who would take on the system that no longer included them. As the Left and their Democratic cohorts made race, gender, illegals, Hispanics, Muslims, and the Gay lobby the cornerstone of their political ideology and policy, mainstream white Christian working men and women began to question who was looking out for them and where was their voice in policy making decisions affecting their governance.

The emphasis on class warfare, open borders, secularism, and multiculturalism at the expense of Americanism by not only the Democratic Party, but by their cohorts in the media and universities has led to a very divided America with each having a separate vision for the United States. The Left as represented by the Democratic Party seeks an open-border stateless America where anyone who sets foot on our soil is free to practice their branch of identity within our borders and with no allegiance to American sovereignty. They seek an America where equality reigns supreme and a statism to ensure it. They view socialism as noble and resent free market capitalism as potentially damaging their quest for equality.

While the French were motivated by egalitarianism, our founding fathers had a different vision for America. They sought an America defined by three principles. Liberty, Faith, and E Pluribus Unum, the motto that shaped our republic and is responsible for its greatness. There are still Americans who cling to these principles and they are the people who reside in the vast territory that elitists on both coasts view as “flyover country”. It is they who cast their votes for Donald Trump. These free market capitalist Americans have a radically different vision for America than those of Socialist Egalitarian Democrats.

They seek an America where everyone has equal opportunities, but not necessarily equal outcomes. They seek an America where faith in G-d is restored in our schools and public sphere, and an America governed by our Constitution and not the rule of man. They seek an America where our sovereignty is restored and respected while the opportunity to immigrate is granted only to those who share our values and respect our customs.

On the other hand, the Left seeks a borderless America without boundaries. Social taboos that were once considered the norm and that held personal conduct in check are relegated as ancient and irrelevant by elitists in the media and in our universities. Be it the murder of the unborn, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, recreational drugs, alternative sexual lifestyles, illicit language, all is desired and permissible for the Left. They are defined by their feelings while conservatives on the right are defined by reason. They emote while we on the right think. Because they are guided by their feelings, they view conservatives as mean-spirited and lacking compassion for the common man while conservatives correctly view the Left as foolish, irrational and immature.

The election of Trump has led Californians to threaten to leave the union, and there are many Americans who are eager to see them leave. Their secession would end the flow of illegals from that state and the millions in federal grants they now receive. They would be free to run that state as a haven for criminals and entitlement seekers. Strict corporate regulations and high taxes will ensure the continuation of corporations fleeing a socialist bureaucracy, and in the end, California will become a morally and financially bankrupt state. "Let's see how long they will last" and "build a wall around them" is the sentiment expressed by the rest of America caught living between the Leftist East and West Coasts. With no funds and no defense, California would most likely shrivel and it wouldn't take long before regret set in.

It is difficult to fathom that a country so divided can unite for the common good when what is considered "good" is radically different for both camps. We have become a Disunited States and no amount of cajoling can unite us. It is time to admit that the differences are perhaps greater than the commonalities. Today, in these Disunited States, many view the enemy is not only from without, but from within.

Shari Goodman, educator and political activist, has written for World Net Daily, Israel Today, Family Security Matters, and Eagle Rising. She is a red dot in the blue state of California.