We keep hearing the political divide in America has never been worse. But our country was founded during a time of intense political debates. Back then, the fighting factions were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, and the arguments were over such things as the separation of powers, God-given rights, and representation.

The problem wasn’t partisanship. For more than two centuries, Americans have generally agreed to disagree. We’ve always had disagreements over taxes, Social Security, guns, abortion, or the national debt, but shared values and principles carried us through the most challenging political times.

It’s different now.

Part of it has to do with the Internet and social media. We think we’re more connected, but we’re actually more isolated. Media manipulation and propaganda are rampant, while we’re told we shouldn’t pay attention to what we see with our own eyes.

In his famous dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell wrote, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” Today, rejecting evidence is a prerequisite to believing the lies coming from the so-called mainstream media and the Biden administration.

For example, in recent days, the White House and its Leftmedia toadies have insisted we’re all being deceived by “cheap fakes” making Biden look feeble and mentally disconnected from reality while insisting Donald Trump is in mental and physical decline.

The extreme distortion of social and moral values that have heretofore stood the test of time is the hallmark of cultural Marxists who seek to destroy our institutions, beliefs, and principles. Essentially, an extreme and demented minority of politicians, academics, and media mouthpieces tell the silent majority that the border is secure while millions of people break into the country. They tell us that “male” and “female” are merely social constructs. They claim our country’s entire history is a system of oppression.

In a free society, we’re not likely to ever agree on everything. But when certain people stoke the flames of hatred and resentment for political gain, it hurts all of us.

Some people who push twisted ideologies on the rest of us scratch their heads and wonder why America seems so divided. “I’ve learned a lot about what that division looks and sounds like, but still struggle to understand what’s driving it,” said left-leaning PBS anchor Judy Woodruff last year. “We want for there to be healthy and vigorous debate in this country. It’s one of the freedoms our founders pinned their hopes on. But, as long as those debates are within the boundaries of our democratic system, is it possible to do so without thinking the worst thoughts of, looking down on, or feeling aggrieved by, those on the other side?”

Let’s face it: Few on the Left want a healthy and vigorous debate. They fear debate and work endlessly to deplatform, shame, cancel, or imprison anyone with alternative views. Dare to take on the Democrat Party? The Merrick Garlands and Alvin Braggs of the world will find you and make you pay.

Maybe the political divide that some claim to worry about is happening because people on the Left continue pushing the most extreme ideas — ideas such as post-birth abortion and the genital mutilation of children.

Don’t celebrate the gay lifestyle? You’re homophobic. Don’t want millions of military-age men crossing the border and demanding free benefits? You’re xenophobic. Hanging the American flag from your house? You’re a nationalist. Think crime is a problem in our inner cities? You’re a racist.

Perpetual name-calling and shaming of anyone with an independent or traditional thought is proving to be the best way to shatter the country into pieces. The makeup of Democrats and Republicans has changed, too, with Democrats becoming more extreme and less likely to have an open mind.

An NBC poll last year revealed that Democrats have become less religious and have moved further to the left in the past 10 years. For example, they’re nearly unanimous when it comes to supporting abortion in all cases. It wasn’t that way all that long ago.

It’s no wonder, then, that so many independents and Republicans feel like they’re living on another planet, a viewpoint found in a recent study of political partisanship. “The Democratic Party is suffering from an image problem. Too many voters, especially among the working class, see the party’s values as out of step with their own,” write the left-wingers at The Nation.

They add: “In an October 2022 poll by Impact Research, 55 percent of likely voters said the Democrats were too extreme or preachy. According to a July 2023 Pew poll, only 32 percent of adults, and fewer of those without a college degree, see the party as uniquely representing their interests. In a Gallup poll conducted in June 2022, just after the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked, nearly half of adults saw the Democrats as too extreme — a 7 percentage point increase over the previous year and 3 percentage points worse than the Republicans’ score.”

Essentially, the radical progressive faction of the Democrat Party holds the rest of the party hostage.

Maybe we need more partisanship. Maybe it’s a good thing that commonsense Americans with a moral compass continue to distance themselves from a radical Left that’s intent on destroying our country with its Big Lies.