For those of us who lie center of left and right, there are few alternatives to the Democrat and Republican parties. Each party has moved towards the extremes and that’s bad for average Americans and America. The problem is that although most of us are not at the extreme ends of either party, and don’t hold extreme views, those who are extreme or radical, tend to be more vocal and more involved, giving the appearance that their numbers are greater than they are. When in fact, these loud voices are small minorities within the parties.

To whom exactly am I referring. Let’s start with one unhinged Congressperson on the far-right of the Republican party. Marjorie Taylor Greene holds extreme views, including her belief that the Republican Party should be a Nationalist Christian Party. They claim this is a Christian country and should be led by Christian values. How is that different from what the right says about Muslims and Sharia Law? She doesn’t come off as very intelligent despite earning a bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Georgia. Clearly an education doesn’t equate to intelligence, especially if your religious views guide your decision making. I would contend that if the framers intended for this to be a country lead by religious ideologues, they would have set it up that way. Instead, the First Amendment clearly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” One need not have a university degree to understand that in these new United States, there was to be no established religion of the new nation, while at the same time, allowing people to practice whatever religion they followed. This was to be a nation governed by civil, not religious law. Greene’s locomotive has gone off the rails.

On the other side, there’s Berkley Law School Professor Khiara Bridges who asked Senator Josh Hawley at a recent hearing if men could get pregnant. When he said that men can’t get pregnant, she accused him of being transphobic. That’s troublesome because although he may be trans phobic or against gay rights, stating that only women can have babies is not a transphobic comment, unless you’re on the extreme left. Only a biological woman, (ovaries, cervix, fallopian tubes and vagina, along with higher doses of estrogen) are capable of becoming pregnant. That’s not opinion, it’s science.

If the argument is that gender supersedes biology, that’s an entirely different matter and one that needs to be settled by the scientific community not attorneys or politicians. Although no surveys that I know of, have been conducted, most Americans would probably say that only women can have babies. The reason for my pushback on the issue is that it gives ammunition to the extreme right to say, look how crazy the left is. They think men can have babies and “chest feed.” The other issue I have, is that by that rule, it means that trans women aren’t really women because they will never, ever be capable of having children. Bridges doesn’t make her case by attempting to convince the rest of the non-trans world that men can in fact have babies. It’s a losing argument that will never be accepted by the majority of the population.

Schools should not allow prayer or teaching of Critical Race Theory, although I have not found any examples of where it’s being taught in elementary or middle schools. Schools should first and foremost focus on education, not indoctrination. That means no prayer and no race theories. Should students decide to become politically active, they need to understand the ways in which they can affect change. Change through our system and not by circumventing it. When I was in grammar school, we learned about the blight on this country that was slavery and about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Japanese American Internment camps in WWII. What’s changed? Every student was required to take math and science, academic subjects that force students to broaden their minds through the only subjects that are factual, not matters of opinions.

The extremes have become more extreme, and the centrists are sitting on the sidelines, watching it all unfold, rather than coming together. No one should be excluded or discriminated against regardless of gender, sex, religion or any other belief. When Greene states that she believes in a Nationalist Christian party, it eliminates her as a legitimate, viable candidate and is un-American. I would even go as far as to say that the extreme right is more dangerous to our democracy than the extreme left. However, I dislike extremes, so neither side is acceptable.

What’s not needed, is a third party, which wouldn’t be viable in our system of government. What is needed is to take back the Democrat and Republican parties from the people who are attempting to hijack them from the majority. When times are good, and in the last decade or more, times have been very good, people become complacent. That’s how New York City voters allowed the worst mayor in its history, Bill DeBlasio, to ruin what was 20 years of highly competent governance under eight years of Giuliani and twelve years under Bloomberg. People forgot what New York City looked like in the 70s and 80’s. Although the graffiti hasn’t returned, the crime has, with a vengeance.

The only way that the United States of America will ever be united again, is if the majority of us, who have common goals and a common understanding of what matters most to us, come together to take back the country from those who have narrow-focused agendas, with only like-minded people accepted in their ranks. All others blacklisted or shamed on social media. It starts by rejecting the notion that no longer is America the land of opportunity. That she is failing because of illegal immigration or the fact that groups like Antifa, desire anarchy. America has been and continues to be imperfect, but inherently racist and a system stacked against anyone who isn’t a white, male Christian?! I can’t agree with that as it simply isn’t fact but rather bullet points for those who long for the “good ole days” or those who insist that life isn’t fair under our system. And yet there is no better one that I know of. Just ask the millions who every year, attempt to enter her shores. I’m sure the 46 dead migrants found in a truck in San Antonio Texas, believed in the “American Dream”.

I support same sex marriage and a woman’s right to choose, but I resent having to identify myself as a pro noun. It’s ridiculous. It’s time to take back our democracy from the small minority of individuals who on one side, long for the past and on the other, want to dismantle our system. I often laugh when I hear people refer to Scandanavian countries as the shining example when their populations are fewer than the population of New York City and essentially homogenous. The problem isn’t our system, the problem is that there are issues that need to be resolved i.e., unlimited money in politics, blaming police officers for the ills of society, forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, prayer in schools and allowing biological males to compete against biological females. These are just several of the problematic issues that both extremes are forcing on average Americans. When the decent people of this country, of which they are the majority, decide to take back the narrative, get involved and vote the extremists out of power, then and only then, will this divide be narrowed. Discourse is to be expected and welcomed in our Republic, but we can no longer allow either side to silence “We the People.”