If you lived overseas, one of the things you learned is just how complex and dynamic a language American English is. One of the things difficult for English language learners to keep up with is the way we continuously redefine words and phrases. The word bad can mean bad, but depending on context can also mean good. Ridiculous can be lacking common sense or an extremely favorable thing. Cool can mean hot; hot can mean cool.

American English has evolved; the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King would be called a basketful of deplorable names if he gave his legendary “I have a dream” speech today. Dr. King used words like colored and boy to refer to a young African American man, an actionable violation of political correctness, perhaps even the law today.

A few words being defined or redefined are white-lash (anyone who disagrees with a liberal even if they are not white), nativist, nationalist, racist, homophobic and more. They are anyone who disagrees with socialist doctrine, and are called a basketful of names.

The puzzling thing is that the terms and words that are being introduced with new meanings are mostly coined by the left and are meant to divide the American people into groups, to label people in the name of furthering group think or politically correct think. Safe zones are places where incorrect speech is banned in the name of free speech. Asking just how that works is also incorrect or forbidden speech.

One of the things that puzzles me a good bit is the rush to divide Americans into groups. A favorite phrase among those on the left is the “as an:” as an African American women/man, as a Hispanic, as an LBGT person, as an- any one of the politically correct groupings folks feel are empowered and entitled. Denying separate entitlement to various groups makes you a deplorable and unredeemable person. If for any reason you disagree with the left, you are suffering from a severe case of white privilege, even if you are not white, as we have seen in labeling the minority folks who voted for Mr. Trump.

A statement that continues to be true is that if you disagree with the right you are incorrect, but if you disagree with the left you are evil and vile. The true danger in the politically correct movement is the death of free speech; each word is judged and if not approved, is a micro aggression or an insult to someone, intended or not. We find the politically correct police patrolling college campuses in the same way the Union of Socialists Republics had Commissars patrolling each block to punish dangerous anti-socialist speech.

The good folks on the left ran the nation for eight years, and truly felt that we as a nation were on the way to destroying the Constitution and adopting a manifesto. The academic, political and media elite felt they were ordained to dictate to the people that we must have a “political revolution” and become a National Socialist state. The elite had predicted Mr. Trump being destroyed at the ballot box, along with those who believed in the American Constitution; they firmly believed that the presidency, House and Senate would be occupied by the socialist left, proving they were correct.

We tend to think that the election was only about Mr. Trump, and because he did not win the popular vote, socialism is alive and well. Take the numbers a bit further and you find the Republicans won the U.S. House and Senate and 32 State Houses, Senates and Governorships — that’s 66% of our nation. The real facts are that the people rejected socialism at every level, and that is why the left is outraged to the point of being deranged.

It will take time, but the swing to the far left will change direction and we will slowly move closer to the political and social center. For those of us who believe in constitutional democracy, that is a good thing.