There is a very good reason behind the growing divide between conservatives and liberals, and it has nothing to do with rhetoric, parties, over-sensitivity, or generally uncivil thinking.

It involves shared principles of government and the sad reality that we no longer share many (if any) with the political left in America.

For much of our nation's existence, parties argued over the wisest means to the same end.  Under that paradigm, compromise is possible.

But what happens when one party decides to head to an entirely different destination?

The Democratic Party of today stands as a thing apart from the nation as founded.  The platform of the Democratic Party declares an agenda largely incompatible with individual liberty and requires the abrogation of constitutional government to achieve.

There is no possible compromise between those who respect and wish to preserve (and restore) constitutionally limited government and those who want to scrap it in favor of some form of government-centric collectivism.

Therefore, there exists an ever widening chasm between men like myself and men like Hodgkinson, the Alexandria shooter.

Now, the most important takeaways from this terrible and avoidable incident is the recognition of that chasm, acceptance of its necessity and hopefully, the realization among those on the left that it is they who have created it by abandoning our founding values in favor of the failed and corrosive ones we have already fought multiple wars to defeat.

Dismiss the calls to "meet in the middle" on "common ground."  Meeting someone halfway who is already over the cliff simply takes you both to your deaths.

Wild-eyed, over-the-top rhetoric has, like the poor, always been with us and always will.  The solution to our present issue lies not in restricting speech, or in attempting to regulate what is and isn't an acceptable form of advocacy, but instead to honestly examine the root of the divergence of opinion.

Overheated rhetoric is a trigger to men like Hodgkinson, but it did not create him.  The effort to supplant our constitutional republican form of government with collectivism of some form or another deserves the blame for that.  It is that parting of the ways that has created the chasm between us, and there can be no compromise with an attempt to overturn our form of government.  Elections permit the transfer of power in our system to occur based on the wishes of the governed, expressing their will by supporting a candidate.

Winning an election grants the power to determine the policies and direction our government will pursue during the winner's term of office.  It does not grant the winner the power to change the form of government itself.

Another nation waging war against us does so to gain control over our people, our resources, and our land by defeating our government and replacing it with its own.

When one political ideology advocates doing precisely the same thing, its place of residence is irrelevant.  An enemy is an enemy (from within or without) and is accorded that status not by location, but by intent. 

Were conservatives to meet liberals halfway in this instance, we would have to participate in treason to do so.

It is the left that needs to return to supporting and defending constitutional government.  Conservatives never stopped.