Democrats are digging a deep hole that’s going to give Trump a real opportunity to win in 2020 assuming he does not resign or get impeached. Liberals are putting all their eggs in one basket. The movers and shakers in the party are betting on socialism.

The 2018 midterms would have been a non-event if Democrats had not won a bunch of seats in Congress and turned over the House of Representatives. It was easy for the firebrand political neophytes to make gains with low voter turnouts and before the country had a chance to appreciate the significance of the political tilt of the radical victors. The policies foisted on voters were easy to sell in individual congressional districts. This will not be the case in the general election.

The socialistic rage among young people and certain ethnic groups will not engage the vast majority of Americans. The abolishment of private insurance coverage as prescribed in Bernie Sanders’ plan for health care, over taxation espoused by every Democratic candidate for president that will destroy our vibrant economy and the New Green Deal are nothing more than a fairy tales told by misinformed snake oil salesmen. Our government is not going to outlaw airplanes or fossil fuel cars or coal fired utilities until things are invented to replace them.

Americans will recognize that the pie-in-the-sky horse poop being spread all over college campuses and in ghettos represent goals that are not achievable in the short or medium term. Long-term strategies that will stretch beyond the lives of Americans living today are where the real answers to pollution, global warming, poverty and conflict reside.

And what about the rest of the world? India and China account for about 1/3 of the carbon emissions in the world. If these countries don’t participate enthusiastically in Ocasio-Cortez’s plan (or any plan), the world will not become a less environmentally toxic place.

Radicals in the Democratic Party are denigrating centrists in their midst. No longer are compromise, capitalism, exceptionalism, innovation and plain old horse sense valued commodities. Liberals want to fight it out in the streets. The dreamers among us along with the downtrodden are not experienced or informed enough to lead America. And guess what? Most will eventually move towards the center, as they grow wiser.

The revolution taking pace in the Democratic Party is reminiscent of the 1960s with one important difference. Protestation of illegal wars and discrimination weren’t an attempt to change the values and dreams of Americans. Rather they forced our elected leaders to account for their blunders and disregard for all the things that have made this country great. Working with the system, long-term, is how America will be great again.

The impact of Trump in this dangerous imbroglio cannot be overstated. For a brief moment in history, a rebel convinced a lot of people that the establishment was detrimental to our nation. In many ways he was correct. Too long our allies were taking advantage of America’s generosity and altruism. Two bit terrorists and despots were given too much latitude. People are starving and dying. Trump got us back on the rails He exposed the underbelly of ineffective leadership. But now it’s time for him to move on.

The old perspective that you need to be radical in the primaries and centrist in the general election is a bad philosophy. We need leaders who are not looking to fight with other Americas. We need leaders who are more concerned about making America stronger, more empathetic, more innovative and more collaborative. We need to redirect our venom towards outsiders that want to kill us and destroy our way of life, not against our fellow Americans.

Call it what you like- centrism or moderation. We must elect a president who will make peace between Republicans and Democrats before he or she tries to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians or settle any other conflicts.