I know plenty of Democrats. Both of my parents were Democrats. Some of my siblings. Almost all of my cousins.

Heeding John F. Kennedy’s call to “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,” they believe the government should protect working families against the predatory practices of multinational corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

They fought and continue to fight bravely, both on and off the battlefield, in defense of America’s founding principles of free speech, freedom of religion and conscience, freedom of association, and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Yet the tragedy of our time is that these Democrats—people who love America like Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy, Jr.—have been and are being betrayed by their own party, by imposters who pretend to be Democrats but are not.

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Donald Trump, however, welcomes patriotic Democrats such as Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, who are people who want to help make America great again.

The truth is, freedom-loving Democrats and Republicans stand together against a third group that has infiltrated our national politics: Far-left “progressive” extremists who openly reject the ideals expressed by the American Founders.

Many of these far-left extremists call themselves Democrats, but a few, such as former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Sen. Mitt Romney, call themselves Republicans.

Unfortunately, many of these imposters are now in Congress and in positions of power in the government.

Whether they call themselves democratic socialists or “woke” advocates for social justice, these authoritarian leftists have little in common with leaders of the Democrat party in the past, people like Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ann Richards, or even Bill Clinton.

While Jimmy Carter said that “the love of liberty is a common blood that flows in our American veins,” the new authoritarian leftists seek to do everything they can to restrict freedom, not expand it.

For Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who spent his honeymoon literally touring the Soviet Union, this means wanting to make private health insurance illegal and creating a “national wealth registry” to aid government confiscation of “excessive” wealth.

For former congressman Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, it means that all churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious organizations that do not publicly accept gay marriage must lose their tax-exempt status and not be allowed to participate in public life.

“There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone, or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,” Beto once declared at a CNN town hall meeting.

For former New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio, it meant passing a law making it an actual crime to use the words “illegal alien” in a way that can be construed as “demeaning,” punishable by a fine of up to $250,000.

Indeed, the new authoritarians seem to go out of their way to attack the Bill of Rights, especially freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms.

“I would love to regulate free speech,” California’s far-left Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) once announced in a jaw-dropping admission on live TV. “The First Amendment prevents me from doing so.”

Realizing what he had just admitted to, Lieu quickly added that it’s probably better if government not regulate speech but, instead, “outsource” such censorship to big tech monopolies such as Youtube and Facebook. “I would urge these private sector companies to regulate it better themselves,” he said.

In the past, Democrats sought to use the power of the state to check the worst excesses of the free market, to provide a safety net for people in time of need, while simultaneously protecting the fundamental rights and responsibilities outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

In contrast, the imposters who have now taken over the Democrat party want to abolish parts of the U.S. Constitution and replace them with something else—an openly Marxist ideology, disguised with names like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, that sacrifices basic civil liberties in the pursuit of allegedly higher ideals.

“Leftists are more likely than liberals to argue that economic inequality renders America’s constitutional liberties hollow,” wrote Peter Beinart in The Atlantic. “They’re more likely to look abroad—to the Soviet Union or Cuba in past eras, and to Scandinavia today—for alternatives to America’s political and economic models.”

Image by Fibonacci Blue. CC BY 2.0.

Of course, many, if not most, real Democrats—ordinary union workers in cities across the country—are horrified by these leftist assaults on long-established American liberties.

They are quick to say they are fighting for traditional Democrat ideals such as better wages and affordable health care, not $60 billion in more military aid to Ukraine or a “Green New Deal” that could cost as much as $93 trillion.

Yet these old-fashioned, blue-collar Democrats—such as Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy, Jr.—are already a dying breed.

The Democrat party of today is led not by the pro-union Democrat politicians of the past who fought for and loved America, but by extreme leftist ideologues who despise America and everything it represents.

That is why the 2024 election represents a major realignment in American politics.

On one side stand the far-left “progressive” extremists who rioted and looted during the “summer of love” in 2020 and have gradually taken over the Democrat party.

These people call themselves Democrats but have nothing in common with John F. Kennedy or the great Democrat leaders of the past.

They ask not what they can do for the country but what the country can do for them: for example, up to $14 trillion in “reparations” for what one group of Americans did 200 years ago to another group of Americans.

On the other side, stand all those regular Americans, Democrats and Republicans, who love America and don’t want it changed into something radically different from what it was, say, just 15 years ago.

These folks want an America where no one is afraid to voice their political views…

… where people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…

… and where the government exists to serve its own citizens, not foreign bodies such as the World Health Organization.

There is little doubt that one reason for Donald Trump’s success is that he has transformed the Republican Party from the party of the super-rich—of out-of-touch country club Republicans like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney—into the party of patriotic American families.

Trump is inviting traditional Democrat constituencies—including Latinos and African-Americans—to join him in a great realignment of American politics that will put an end to the racial hatred, violence and extortion championed by far-left politicians who pretend to be Democrats but aren’t.

Robert J. Hutchinson is the author of numerous books of popular history. He writes regularly at www.DisputedQuestions.com.