Let me be clear: I am a right-leaning centrist. I am not a Republican, and I am not a Democrat. In fact I’m far from a rabid supporter of either party. I’ve voted for candidates on both sides over the years, and I personally couldn’t care less about what party those candidates represent as much as I care about what their views are on the issues and how their views align with mine.

With that said, I am sick and tired of watching both sides act like spoiled, petulant children when it comes to showing simple, basic respect for each other – and ultimately, for the citizens of America.

All you have to do is go back and watch any State of the Union address or congressional address over the last 20 or so years and you’ll see one side acting like everything that is being said is coming directly through divine intervention and the other side acting like those same things being said are being inspired directly through Beelzebub himself at the same time.

Protest the president all you want. Protest policies you don’t agree with all you want. But in the name of pure, old-fashioned decency – not to mention setting a good example for the nation as a whole – be at least outwardly respectful of each other. Is that too much to ask? And make no mistake, the silliness is not just coming from the left. Republicans have acted like pure-out spoiled brats in the past themselves, and don’t try to pretend they haven’t. Go back and watch any of Obama’s or Biden’s speeches if you don’t believe me.

However, right now, it is the left that finds itself in a very precarious position, almost historically so. Undeniably dominated in the last election, right now it just doesn’t seem to have a clear path toward getting the majority of more independent minded Americans even interested in what they have to say about those and other issues and policies.

One of the biggest things the left can do to help itself is understand that the aforementioned optics matter when you’re talking about the American public (in other words, voters). Sitting like a bunch of stone-faced statues when a young cancer survivor has just had one of the highlights of his life (and I know all about cancer funding supposedly being cut and all that, but what does that have to do with that child and his moment to shine)? Sitting there waving little bingo signs supposed to make someone else look bad? Sitting like gargoyles for Laken Riley’s family? Really? Seriously?

All of that is just a bad look, and you can be assured that every American with anything resembling an independent mind took notice. None of that looked like a protest against policy – it looked like a protest against those people and a willing choice to ignore basic decorum.

The reality is those optics involved are going to have to start to matter to the Democrats if they have any hope of getting any independent-minded voter in this nation excited about supporting them again. Right now from almost all angles, it appears to the neutral eye they are a rudderless ship adrift in an ocean of leaderless dysfunction and division…and inexplicably are doing little to nothing to change that perception.

It should be very, very clear that the overwhelming majority of Americans see the economy, securing our border, crime, and education as the most important political priorities they want to see addressed – and right now there is a figurative and literal vacuum on all four coming from the left. And, given that leadership void currently being exhibited from the left, I’m just not sure I see a clear path forward to change that perception, at least not any time soon.

And, it must be said, at some point, the left is going to have to acknowledge the simple fact that the overwhelming majority of people on the right are not as much Trump zealots (including the Latinos, Black, and young voters that secured his victory for him) as they are people residing near the center ideologically who just don’t see any viable or legitimate alternative being offered from the other side.

Until the left swallows that fact and actually addresses it through many of the things we are talking about here, you can just about be guaranteed what we are witnessing is only going to get worse.

If the left can’t see why the majority of Americans don’t feel a tangible connection to them today then they are simply choosing to not look and using Trump as an excuse. And, if they don’t start doing some serious introspection and rebranding soon, the next election will be even more lopsided than the last.

That’s not a political statement – it’s a simple acknowledgment of the reality in play. Most of what I’ve shared today might sound like an attack on the left, but it’s really not. Remember – not too many years ago all of that could’ve been said about Republicans.

Regardless, the bottom line is there’s a real difference between a protest and a tantrum. It’s past high time both sides of our political ‘leadership’ understand that most Americans still recognize the difference between the two.