How did this happen?

When did it become OK for one of the two major political parties in America to attack a young black woman, who works for an orthodox Jew, as a fascistic fan of Adolf Hitler after she was invited to testify before Congress?

When did it become OK for the representatives of the same party openly to label Israel, our closest friend in the Middle East, an “evil” state which has “hypnotized the West,” then libel their fellow representatives of having “dual loyalties” because they are Jewish, or to intimate that Israel simply shouldn’t exist?

And when did the all the leading names in that party’s list of candidates for president come to see it as obligatory to endorse a Green New Deal for the nation that has as its objective the outlawing of the internal combustion engine and air travel?

This is today’s Democratic Party. A party whose members wish to see tax rates reach 70 percent, who want to abolish the federal agencies that protect our borders, and who used to believe that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare” but who now want mothers to have the right not only to kill their child in the womb, but also once it has been delivered into the world. It’s a party that is just fine with one of its freshman representatives targeting a Jewish advisor of President Trump’s as a “white nationalist” even as she belittles the events of September 11, 2001, and mocks those who take al-Qaeda and Hezbollah seriously.

This is a party in radicalizing free fall, with its new leaders vying to outdo each other in their extremism as the old guard simply surrenders to the mob.

Most Americans think the words and actions of today’s Democratic Party are un-American. By “most,” I mean those who live outside the ultra-liberal metropolises in the land where the real world exists.

Before I joined the Trump Administration, I traveled the nation to brief our military, the FBI, and local law enforcement on the evolution of the terrorist threat from al-Qaeda to ISIS, and during the 20,000 miles or so I would average in a month, I met thousands upon thousands of patriotic Americans. All of them lived in the real world. They would have no idea who Anderson Cooper or Rachel Maddow are, but they would have no truck with anyone who believes that America has never been great or that our president should be apologizing for who we are.

In fact, these are the people who voted for a non-politician in 2016 to fix all that the reigning political class had destroyed since the 1980s.

We are a nation divided. But we are not divided in the way the fake news media and the talking heads would have you believe.

The division is between an establishment that doesn’t care about life outside of the Acela corridor in the “flyover states” and the people who actually work in those states to make America the incredible country it is. It is a division between a radicalized Democratic Party which hates the traditional American values upon which our Republic is built, and those who shed blood on foreign fields to vouchsafe that Republic and who carry a badge and a gun and keep us safe from those who would use violence against us at home. And it is a division between the average American conservative who still believes in the model of citizen-politician typified by our Founding Fathers and our 45th president and their Republican senators and congressman who have become professional politicians, grifters, liars, and cowards.

Candace Owens’ testimony has the potential to leave an indelible mark on American politics and culture. Already, barely a week after she publicly annihilated Representatives Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the C-SPAN clip of her stand against their bigotry and rank arrogance has garnered a record-breaking 7.5 million views online. And I for one intend to repost it daily and play the magnificent audio on my national radio show, “America First,” until both disgraceful racists no longer serve on Capitol Hill.

In her interview with Breitbart Radio after the hearing, Candace spoke of her experience testifying for the first time in front of Congress, the trepidation she felt, and then about her realization of who her foes were: “I sat down in the chair, and I have to say, just looking at them, they just all seem so pathetic to me. . . . I think it was a major win for all of us.”

Candace most definitely won. But it is now our responsibility to take her example as the catalyst we have been waiting for.

We cannot reason with the Democratic Party. Its policies are those of extremists. Its leading lights are bigoted racists who are as comfortable publicly attacking young black women now as they were when the Ku Klux Klan was the official armed wing of their party and its politicians held offices in both.

In 2016 we pulled our nation back from the precipice of disaster. Since then, incredibly, the Democrats have radicalized even more and the establishment GOP has continued its charade of pretending to represent conservative values and our founding principles.

Perhaps it is time to resurrect the Tea Party or create its new 21st-century analogue, one led by people with the courage and fortitude of young women like Candace Owens. Brava.

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