We can all agree with Joe Biden that “we are in a battle for the soul of this nation.”

Biden’s video announcing his presidential candidacy provides the best raw material we could ask for regarding how he sees this battle.

In this opening salvo of his campaign, Biden serves up as his centerpiece transparent lies and distortions about President Trump’s remarks following the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.

In other words, Biden makes a pretty good case why President Trump will be reelected.

A major factor that drove many working-class Americans into the Republican column in 2016 was that so many were sick and tired of what they know in their heart to be true being pushed to the sidelines and displaced by intolerant left-wing political correctness and distortions.

Really, folks, does any sane person really believe that Donald Trump thinks neo-Nazis are “very fine people”? And that even if he has such a sick and distorted side, he would blatantly say it for public consumption at a press conference?

Does anyone really think that if Donald Trump were sympathetic to neo-Nazis and white supremacists, he would have appointed Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants and former governor of South Carolina who signed legislation to remove the Confederate flag from the state’s capitol grounds, to be America’s ambassador to the United Nations?

Anyone reading the readily available transcripts of President Trump’s remarks on Charlottesville will see, if they care about the truth — a big assumption these days — that “very fine people” on both sides referred to the demonstration regarding taking down the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville.

I, myself, favor local government voting to remove flags, statues and memorabilia celebrating the Confederacy. Such celebrations cause great anguish to African Americans who have a history of deep pain associated with that time of great injustice.

Nevertheless, I believe in free speech, and I believe in the right to assembly and peaceful demonstration — even if I find what is being expressed repugnant.

America’s left wants us to believe — and it gets great help from a sympathetic left-wing media — that all of America’s intolerance comes from the right.

So, in fact, President Trump made a world-class effort in his remarks about the incident in Charlottesville to be fair, balanced and faithful to the facts. And he was.

His condemnation of neo-Nazis and white supremacists was unequivocal.

But the left could not handle that there might have been peaceful Americans who showed up to protest removal of the Robert E. Lee statue.

Nor could it tolerate that the president would note that there was unacceptable violent behavior on the other side — those favoring removing the statue — which there was.

I can speak from personal experience of the intolerance of the left.

I speak on university campuses across the country and know firsthand what it means for the left to try to shut you down, sometimes violently.

I also have experience saying something on national television opposing abortion or same-sex marriage and then needing to send my staff home because of violent threats that shut down my office.

Far less convenient for Biden would have been quoting accurately Trump’s initial remarks on Charlottesville: “Above all else, we must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country. We love our God. And we love our flag. … we must love each other, respect each other and cherish our history and our future together. … We have to respect each other. Ideally, we have to love each other.”

The partisan left will be pleased with Biden’s lies. But decent Americans of all ethnicities understand that President Trump is restoring America’s freedom, tolerance, prosperity — and soul.

COPYRIGHT 2019 STAR PARKER