In the course of pursuing accountability for the 2020 election results, we can’t ignore those who’ve been actively gaslighting grassroots Patriots about the Left’s intentions. It’s a strong word, yes, but when one looks at the facts, it’s an accurate description of what The Dispatch’s David French recently tried to do.

Pundits make their living by stirring the pot, no doubt about it. If they can generate a lot of discussion and comment in these click-bait times, so much the better. But French’s insistence that it’s a lie to say that the Left hates us is itself a lie. Furthermore, the evidence of left-wing hatred for the Right long predates Donald Trump’s escalator ride to announce his 2016 bid for president.

The Left’s track record of extreme animus is undeniable, and we’re not the only outlet to have noticed. It comes from Hollywood, from politicians like Maxine Waters, from pundits like Eugene Robinson, from “media figures” like Al Sharpton, and from plenty of other places. Hollywood elites and politicians who never missed a paycheck mocked not just those exercising their First Amendment rights to protest the harm the lockdowns did but those who were watching their businesses die and their financial situation turn more and more desperate. A certain former first lady said those trying to fix a botched school-lunch experiment were okay with kids eating crap.

But beyond ugly statements and the mocking of valid concerns, we have a long train of abuses. What motivated the regime of Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James to target the National Rifle Association? Cuomo all but admitted his reasoning — he hated the NRA for its opposition to gun control. And, by the way, the NRA is now leaving New York for Texas.

What motivated the notorious John Doe investigations in Wisconsin? French himself answered the question in his own National Review article on those abusive probes: hatred stemming from Scott Walker’s status as a Republican governor, and later his long-overdue reforms of the state’s teachers unions. Or, to put it bluntly, the vindictive leftist prosecutor hated the conservatives and the success they enjoyed in Wisconsin in the early 2010s.

What motivated the state of Colorado’s harassment of Masterpiece Cakeshop? The Supreme Court answered that in a 7-2 ruling: hatred toward the sincerely held religious beliefs of bakeshop owner Jack Phillips. The smoking gun was the disparity in how other bakeries were treated.

The abuse leveled at conservative commentator Dana Loesch after she took on Jake Tapper at CNN’s post-Parkland Second Amendment shaming special? Pure hatred for conservatives’ support of the Second Amendment. Much of the invective is unprintable, and Loesch isn’t the only woman who’s faced it. Just ask Sarah Palin, Candace Owens, or Nikki Haley to name three prominent targets.

When we look at the Left over the years, we see the over-the-top hatred leftists have directed at grassroots Patriots and other advocates for constitutional government. We can go on and on, but the fact pattern is undeniable. When it comes to the Left’s hatred of the Right, are we to believe David French or our own lyin’ eyes?