There's a new Fox News poll out this week showing Donald Trump in a statistical tie with Hillary Clinton nationally (Trump at 45 percent and Clinton at 42 percent, with a margin of error of 3 percent). Yet the newspapers are full of headlines asking if the GOP will survive this election cycle and the Republican Party's fate is being described as if it were facing the end of days.

The truth is that despite its short term troubles, in the long run the GOP has gained in strength. In 2015, Gallup analyzed party affiliation at the state level and found that 20 states are solidly or leaning Republican, with only 14 states solidly or leaning Democratic. Compare that with 2008, when Gallup found 35 states as solidly or leaning Democratic, and only five solidly or leaning Republican. That's not a party in decline. Democrats haven't controlled fewer state legislatures since 1978, during the Carter years. In 2009, Republicans controlled both chambers in 14 state legislatures; now they control more than double that number. At the same time, the number of Republican governors has swelled from 19 to 31. Say what you want about the Republican presidential field this year, but there's no denying that it was the deepest bench of candidates in memory.

No one seems to be interested in that story. The press would rather cover @realDonaldTrump's tweets about tacos.

Meanwhile, sandwiched between "real" news stories – do we really need any more "breaking news" stories about long TSA lines? – is the fact that Hillary Clinton is in real trouble. Despite her big lead among superdelegates, Clinton has only led the popular vote in 22 of the 39 caucuses and primaries so far; she's won just under 13 million votes, and Bernie Sanders has won nearly 10 million. And he seems to be picking up steam. Perhaps it's because her unfavorable ratings with voters remain stubbornly high: 54 percent view her unfavorably, compared to 39 percent favorably according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls. Politico reports that Sanders has outraised Clinton for the third month in a row.

My prediction is that the tidal wave of anti-establishment furor that has already hit the GOP is heading for the Democrats next – the only question is how fast it spreads leftward. Progressive voters are starting to figure out that no one embodies the liberal elite more than Hillary and Bill Clinton. That's why they're not turning out at her rallies, or giving her money, or saying that if Sanders drops out, they'll vote for her instead.

As they did earlier in the GOP race with Trump supporters, things got really ugly this week with Sanders supporters. At the Nevada State Democratic Convention, chairs were thrown by Sanders voters, and death threats were made against state chair Roberta Lange. The convention had to be shut down because the hotel where it was held could no longer ensure order. Sanders backers protested rules that they believed were unfair – rules resulting in the state chair awarding Clinton more pledged delegates than Sanders supporters expected.

The Nevada story matters for two reasons. First, it feeds the narrative that "the fix is in" for Hillary, that the system really is rigged. No one on the right or left does a better job of gaming the system than she and her husband do – whether we're talking about her cattle futures, or Whitewater, the Clinton Foundation, her private server or absurdly high speaking fees from supportive groups. Add to that list the 2016 delegate selection process.

When you combine Clinton's longtime rules-don't-apply-to-me ethics with her penchant for a bigger, stronger government and more tax-and-spend authority you can see why even Democratic voters are alarmed at the prospect of the candidate Trump has nicknamed "crooked Hillary" being in charge of a growing behemoth of federal regulations, our national security apparatus and our justice system.

Second, in the words of the Nevada state party's lawyer's letter to the DNC: "We believe, unfortunately, that the tactics and behavior on display here in Nevada are harbingers of things to come as Democrats gather in Philadelphia in July for our National Convention. We write to alert you to what we perceive as the Sanders campaign's penchant for extra-parliamentary behavior – indeed, actual violence – in place of democratic conduct in a convention setting, and furthermore what we can only describe as their encouragement of, and complicity in, a very dangerous atmosphere that ended in chaos and physical threats to fellow Democrats." Given Sanders' fairly lame disavowal of the violence, the Nevada convention may be the canary in the coalmine in terms of more politically motivated violence. Let's hope not.

Clinton will need Sanders voters in the general election, and like so many other times in her life, she appears willing to say or do what is necessary to get what she wants. That explains why she's lurching further to the left – according to her campaign website, she's upping her proposal for a higher minimum wage from $12 to $15 an hour; she's answering Sanders' "free college" promises with tuition-free community college; she not only wants to protect Obamacare, she wants to "build upon it"; she's also promising to "reform executive compensation" (whatever that means) and "end quarterly capitalism" while ensuring the "most fortunate" pay higher taxes. More class warfare is on its way.

Clinton used to be to Obama's right, now she's to his left – and she's closing in on meeting Sanders in the far, far left. No wonder Trump is pulling even with her nationally in some polls – and why the online pledge drive WontVoteHillary.com now has over 77,000 signatures.