A warning and a wake-up call to learn history so we are not doomed to repeat it. A must-read for anyone who longs for a promising future for our great nation.

What is wrong with America today? Is it possible that America could crumble and our democracy fail?

Questions like these plague Americans and cause us to be anxious about the future of the “land that we love.” Individuals may come to different conclusions, but there seems to be a common thread – the deep-seated feeling that we need to improve our country. Our culture is increasingly immoral, the family structure is threatened from all sides, and government programs consistently overreach, creating massive debt.

In this powerful and prophetic audiobook, nationally syndicated columnist and trusted political commentator Cal Thomas offers a diagnosis of what exactly is wrong with the United States by drawing parallels to once-great empires and nations that declined into oblivion. Citing the historically proven 250-year pattern of how superpowers rise and fall, he predicts that America’s expiration date is just around the corner and shows us how to escape their fate.

Through biblical insights and hard-hitting truth, he reminds us that real change comes when America looks to God instead of Washington. Scripture, rather than politics, is the GPS he uses to point listeners to the right road – a road of hope, life, and change. Because, he says, if we’re willing to seek God first, learn from history, and make changes at the individual and community level, we can not only survive, but thrive, again.

This powerful, timely, and much-needed perspective is a must-listen for anyone who longs for a promising future for our great nation.

Inspired by their popular USA Today column, conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel show politicians of both stripes how to get beyond partisanship, restore civility, and move our country forward. Thomas and Beckel are a unique pair in today’s political climate–pundits from opposite sides who not only talk to each other but work together to find common ground on some of the most divisive issues facing us, from the war in Iraq to gay marriage to the Patriot Act. Common Ground unmasks the hypocrisy of many of the issues, organizations, and individuals who created and deepened the partisan divide at the center of American politics, and makes a strategic case for why this bickering must stop.

Throughout, Thomas and Beckel explode conventional wisdom and offer surprising new conclusions:

• The Red State/Blue State divide: Myth!
• A “common ground” presidential candidate can win in 2008: Reality!
• “Polarizers” like Ann Coulter and Michael Moore are the future of political debate: Myth!
• Major-party politics faces extinction: Reality!

These guys should know. For years Beckel and Thomas contributed to the climate of polarization in Washington . . . and they admit it. “We’re two guys who spent a lot of years in the polarizing business, but on opposing sides,” they write. “We helped write the game plan, and we have participated in everything from getting money out of true believers to appearing on television to help spread the contentious message. In many cases, we wrote the message. We know the gig, and it’s just about up.”

In this much-needed book, Thomas and Beckel go beyond their column to offer a sobering overview of the current political divide and its corrosive effect on us all.They also explain how bipartisanship and consensus politics are not only good for the day-to-day democratic process but essential for our nation’s future well-being.

Entertaining and informative, funny and healing, Common Ground is must reading for all concerned citizens.

We didn’t just crawl out of a cave. We know what works based on experience. Why must we constantly re-fight the same battles over and over? Our politics and even our spiritual lives too often resemble the film “Groundhog Day” in which actor Bill Murray wakes up and repeats the same event again and again and nothing ever changes, as in present-day Washington.

Why don’t we consult the past and common sense in order to see that what others discovered still works. Wisdom existed before the Internet and other forms of mass communication – and video games, Facebook and Twitter.

Today, we have more information than ever, but less wisdom; more talk, but less listening; more things in the superficial showroom (celebrities are a good example) and less in the intellectual storeroom (that would be knowledge).

We KNOW what works – historically and instinctively—but politics too often gets in the way, as does ignorance. Too few people pay attention and the politicians easily pick their pockets – literally and intellectually.  That’s why Congress has an approval rating lower than cockroaches and colonoscopies and only slightly above pedophiles.

Instead of the constant jockeying for political advantage, suppose we start focusing on what promotes the general welfare, regardless of which party or ideology gets the credit.  It’s amazing what problems can be solved if solutions, not partisan gain, become the goal.

The American public is being “gamed” by politicians, the big media and other “elites,” whose main interest centers on themselves. When was the last story you saw on TV, or read in a newspaper, about anyone pursuing, much less achieving, a solution to any major problem?

This book is about solutions, not theories or an attempt to gain political advantage.  It’s about pressuring our political leadership to forget about the next election and start focusing on the needs of the people who work hard to provide for themselves, send their tax dollars to Washington, and want to see the country achieve something of value as it has always done. How about abandoning things that don’t work and start focusing on what does work?  The alternative is more of the past.  And Bill Murray with the ground hogs.