This is a tumultuous time in American politics.

Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on anything, there’s a growing divide between two visions for America’s future, and some of our elected officials seem out of touch with the people they represent.

While both sides have their fringe political figures, Democrat Party leaders have taken the most extreme positions on a range of issues, from gender mutilation for kids to open borders to abolishing ICE.

Some even embrace socialism as the cure for all our ills. In fact, a Harvard-Harris poll recently found that Democrat voters prefer socialism over capitalism by a margin of 54% to 46%. Yet when the question was reframed as a choice between free enterprise and socialism, Democrats said they preferred free enterprise by a significant margin.

Maybe Democrat voters aren’t as extreme as we think.

It makes one wonder if national Democrats truly represent the views of their voters and whether blue-collar Democrats who still believe in traditional, commonsense American values might be more representative of their party than the militant activists ready to burn it all down.

As James Freeman writes at The Wall Street Journal, “The good news is that there is increasing evidence that your neighbors are not as crazy as the politicians who represent them. This is especially true in deep-blue jurisdictions.”

Freeman adds, “Wouldn’t it be nice if the national Democratic Party wasn’t perpetually lunging ever further leftward on every single issue? One likes to think there might be a moment when the pendulum swings toward the middle. Recent polling suggests that Democratic voters would very much welcome such a moment.”

A pendulum swing in the Democrat Party would be a welcome sign, and it might happen sooner than we think.

A poll conducted by NBC News reveals that only 30% of respondents hold a somewhat or very positive view of Democrats. The Republican Party isn’t a whole lot better at 37%. Meanwhile, 38% view Immigration and Customs Enforcement positively, and 41% view President Donald Trump positively. Only Iran has a lower net rating than Democrats, according to the poll.

Maybe voters in general and Democrat voters in particular have had enough. It’s hard to watch prominent Democrat politicians defending violent, criminal illegal aliens, calling everything under the sun racist, and mocking our history, culture, and economic system without coming away thinking they don’t reflect the views of most people.

Even California Governor Gavin Newsom, keeping his eye on the 2028 presidential nomination, is tempering his positions. On a recent podcast, Newsom said Democrats need to be more “culturally normal.”

Although the results of the NBC poll should send shockwaves through Democrat leadership, it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out why it’s not. National Democrats are already measuring the drapes of their new congressional offices and making plans for everything from raising taxes to impeaching Trump. But they should be careful not to be overconfident.

While the perception is that most mainstream Democrat voters support fringe issues, the reality paints a different picture. A recent study by the Manhattan Institute found that party voters want to move to the center rather than lurch further to the left.

The survey reveals, “On immigration, only one-in-ten take a true ‘open borders’ position, less than one-in-four want to see more legal migrants come into the country, and majorities support shifting to prioritize skills-based immigration and deporting criminals.”

“On public safety, the coalition is divided over the criminal justice system in general, but it strongly supports aggressive prosecution of gun crimes, views the police as essential, and rejects political violence. On transgender issues, most voters support parental notification requirements, prevent biological boys from participating in girls’ sports, and age limits on medication transitions.”

They add, “Two in three Democrats see America as historically a force for good in the world.”

In other words, most Democrats are far more mainstream than we realize. Apparently, even their own elected representatives fail to realize how out of touch they are with the voters who elected them to public office.

What all this comes down to is that there’s one party Democrats want and another party they currently have.

City-Journal asks, “If Democrats are this moderate, why does the party so frequently appear otherwise? Part of the answer is the institutional ecosystem that now governs Democratic politics. Over the past two decades, a network of progressive advocacy groups, ideological nonprofits, activist donors, and aligned unions has accumulated enormous influence over candidate recruitment, messaging, and policy priorities.”

The journal adds, “Primary candidates who deviate from activist orthodoxy often face organized opposition, well-funded primary challenges, and relentless pressure campaigns from within their own coalition.” As a result, “it’s often safer, electorally speaking, for them to echo the loudest voices in the party than to represent the quieter instincts held by most of their voters.”

The takeaway from all of this is sobering. Our Democrat-voting neighbors, friends, and coworkers are more like the rest of us than we thought. It doesn’t mean we don’t have important differences to work out, but making the country better might be workable.

Now, we just need Democrat voters to wake up and realize the people running their party have a vision for the country that’s far different from their own.