Walter Russell Mead had some thoughts while ruminating on some remarks made by Pope Francis as the latter was enroute to Poland.  He quoted Francis:

 …the world is at war because it has lost the peace.

To be clear: Francis wasn’t talking about have misplaced the peace; he was referring to our having lost the struggle for peace—both the struggle that is peace vs war and the struggle for generating out of that peace freedom, prosperity, and stability.

Mead commented:

[W]e have lost the peace. It is an interesting counterpoint to the Democratic establishment’s celebration of itself and its wisdom last night [the third night of the Democratic Party Convention].

Although he’s more confident in Clinton than I am, a point is clear: a Party that hides its head away from the reality of the present situation is a Party that will be hard-pressed to deal with that reality in any productive way.