1) A multi-thread on where I think we are as a Country. @NicolleDWallace @TheRickWilson @SykesCharlie @Evan_McMullin @StandUpRepublic //
"We – as a Nation once again stand on the precipice of history. The fathers of this great nation, even with their unimaginable foresight,..

2) could never predict the course that our country has taken in its short lifespan, to include all that we have achieved, as well as all of the horrors that we have both inflicted and endured. But they gave us a preamble, where “We the People of the United States,...

3) in Order to form a more perfect Union…”

That more perfect Union has been able to endure almost a quarter of a millennium, and not without grave cost. Throughout the span of our nation’s life, we have had pivotal moments in time, where the generations of those times,

4) have had to make a decision. A decision that would change the course of the country, and the world. To declare independence, to abolish slavery, to declare woman’s suffrage, to stand against global tyranny (twice), and to provide civil rights for ALL of its citizens.

5) Highlights major moments in time where we decided what side of history we wanted to be on. We are once again… At a pivot point.

We now live in a hyper-connected world, with technology that has done more to promote tribalism, than to truly allow us the ability to communicate.

6) In the timeless words of Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, “… in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.” Also paraphrasing Bobby, we can move in a direction of greater polarization,

7) of divide, or we can make an effort, to understand, and to comprehend. We have to make an effort in the United States, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

We are a nation of immigrants, that now number over 320 million, with various nationalities,

8) hundreds of religions and languages. We are no longer being justly served by being labeled by a mere duality of choice, of either being a Republican or Democrat. The two-party system (which was never how it was envisioned), has become over saturated with those that have gained

9) power, and power tends to corrupt. The time for multiple parties to represent the unheard voices of my fellow Americans has finally arrived.

So here we are standing at the next pivot point in our great country. Where we have to decide whether we are going to continue to show

10) the strength of the political experiment which is our Constitutional Republic–or cast it aside as yet another failed attempt at self-governance in the long history of mankind.

I don't see a divide between Americans based on race, religion, wealth, gender, and the list goes

11) on.

The division I see is the division between the Americans who like the country broken and divided, and the rest of us. I see it everywhere I look. When I watch TV, when I am on Social Media when I read a newspaper, or even when I listen to the radio.

12) America’s problem isn't one labeled group or the other.

The country’s problem is the minority yet powerful subset of American’s that are feeding on the hate, deceit, discourse, and division.

But I've got a message for them, from the Americans that are keeping “it” alive.

13) From the echoes of patriots, that shed their blood for this nation that believed that ALL men are created equal, that with thoughts that breathe and words that burn, that it’s possible to have a dream at the table of brotherhood. That from the ashes of world war,

14) that strikes out against injustice, in order to send forth a tiny ripple of hope, daring those ripples to build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression. And they chose that challenge, not because it was easy, but because it was hard, because that

15) challenge is one that they were willing to accept, and one they were unwilling to postpone, and in the result has liberated more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history.

16) Just look around, someone has to do something, WE have to do something, WE can make a difference again. The country, the world needs us now more than ever.

17) So a message from those patriots and my fellow citizens that still believe in THAT America, to all those that don't; you're outnumbered.

18) We can still be the shining city upon a hill. From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome. But it’s always darkest just before the dawn.

So I have just one question… are you with me?

#togetherwerise @StandUpRepublic #nowisthetime