Throughout history, propaganda that undermines the morale of a nation has always been an effective weapon. Well, no enemy of the United States — not communist China, not Russia, not Iran — could do more through propaganda to hurt our country than what the American left is doing right now.

The left’s rhetoric is turning our people against each other. (See next item.) It’s making our children hate the country of their birth. No foreign enemy could accomplish what the political left has managed to do. And it’s no coincidence that our enemies now parrot the left’s rhetoric to slander America.

Throughout history, every country taught its citizens to love their country. That’s how countries survive in this dangerous world.

But for decades, our cultural leaders, and at times our government leaders, have been telling our children that they live in a terrible, racist country. They’ve been telling our children that there are only two types of people: You’re either oppressed in America or you are an oppressor in America.

That is a poisonous lie!

Obviously, America isn’t perfect. No nation is. But compared to any other country, America is a shining city upon a hill.

That’s why each and every day thousands of people risk their lives to enter this country illegally. But people of color are not coming here in droves because America is a systemically racist nation. Ironically, the crisis at the southern border disproves the left’s big lie about America.

Those slandering America range from the president of the United States to university professors and teachers in our public schools. It includes many media commentators and professional athletes who have enjoyed unimaginable wealth and privilege. And yet they pay back their country by tearing it down.

If the left’s hatred continues to run its course unchallenged, it will bring America to its knees as effectively as any virus or nuclear missile landing on our soil.

Remember the Tea Party — a spontaneous movement of Americans frustrated with big government? My old friend Bill Bennett, who was Ronald Reagan’s secretary of Education and I served as under secretary, said yesterday that we need a cultural Tea Party of citizens willing to defend our country from the lies of the radical left.

That was and still is Donald Trump’s America First movement.

Media Malfeasance

Here we go again.

Earlier this week, a white police officer in Columbus, Ohio, responded to a frantic 911 caller who said someone was “trying to stab us.” As he arrives on the scene, there is a horrific fight taking place. The officer witnesses a black teenage girl armed with knife about to stab another black teenage girl who is backed up against a car.

The officer yells, “Get Down!” multiple times, and then fires his weapon killing the attacker, 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant.

The headlines describing this event could have been, “White Cop Saves Black Teen” or “Hero Cop Saves Black Life.”

Instead, we got headlines like this from the Washington Post: “Fatal Police Shooting Of Black Teenager In Columbus Sparks New Outcry.” That was tame by comparison. Other headlines even tried to drag Derek Chauvin into it.

For the first seven paragraphs of the Post report, all you get is rhetoric like this:

“… a person of color killed by law enforcement…”

“… a long and growing list of Black people killed by police officers…”

“… systemic racism and overhaul policing…”

“… an example of the kind of systemic racism that persists in the country’s policing practices.”

You have to get eight paragraphs into the Post report before you learn (and almost as an afterthought) the most important fact: That the attacker was armed with a knife; that the use of deadly force was justified; that this probably shouldn’t be a front-page national news story.

The officer saved at least one black life! But, sadly, the White House and the entire media complex put the worst possible spin on it.

Exactly what is it that President Biden, Vice President Harris, Valerie Jarrett and LeBron James (see below) wanted that police officer to do? I have no doubt that if the officer had not acted, he would be getting attacked today for not caring about black lives.

LeBron’s Threat

There are persistent rumors that LeBron James is planning to pursue a political career in Ohio. There were reports that he heavily influenced the decision of MLB Commissioner Manfred to pull the All-Star Game out of Georgia.

No one questions James’s skill on the basketball court. He is a scoring machine. But while we can celebrate his athletic abilities, we don’t need to elevate him to public office.

Reacting to Ma'Khia Bryant’s death, James tweeted a photo of the Columbus police officer with the caption, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY.”

The tweet was widely seen as a threat to the officer’s life, and a clear incitement to violence. The Fraternal Order of Police blasted James for “gaslighting” America, and condemned his tweet as “disgraceful and extremely reckless.”

After a fierce backlash, James eventually deleted the tweet. But he lashed out at his critics, insisting they were the ones creating “more hate,” and adding, “This isn’t about one officer. It’s about the entire system…”

So, there you go. James is just another run-of-the-mill, anti-American leftist who thinks the entire system is racist. He rakes in millions while stepping over black bodies killed by gangs and criminals because he is fixated on the left’s false narratives.

Minneapolis Misery

The misery in Minneapolis is far from over. Other cases involving Officer Kim Potter and three more officers involved in George Floyd’s death are still pending. Meanwhile, Merrick Garland, who was nominated by Obama for the Supreme Court and wisely blocked by Mitch McConnell, is now attorney general of the United States.

In the wake of Chauvin verdict, Garland revived an Obama-era program used by Eric Holder against police departments all over the country. Garland announced that the Department of Justice is going to investigate the Minneapolis Police Department, presumably because the Biden Administration believes there is deep-seated racism that must be rooted out.

Keep in mind that Minneapolis is governed by a liberal Democrat mayor and a radical left-wing city council. But we know how this ends. We’ve seen it before. Every officer in Minneapolis will stop taking risks fearing that anything they do will be second-guessed by federal officials who assume law enforcement is systemically racist.

At some point, the Democrats who run Minneapolis will cut a deal with the Democrats investigating Minneapolis to “reform” policing. Crime will go up. And the most frequent victims will inevitably be the minority residents of the city.

So, a blow for reform will be struck, and more black kids will die. And the radical leftists who run the Democrat Party will call that progress.