The iconic late poet Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them.” That simple advice seems especially relevant regarding the American left in 2019. Both politicians and activists of the Democratic media complex scurry to charge racism against President Trump and our nationalist movement, when in reality they themselves employ brutally divisive political strategies buttressed by their own increasingly bigoted thinking.

For example, I appeared on CNN Monday night to discuss the firestorm over the president’s caustic tweets last weekend criticizing the four most progressive members of the House of Representatives. I deemed the tweets illogical and shrill, and said so on Twitter and on Anderson Cooper’s show. I also pointed out that the overreaction from Democratic politicians and their media allies revealed a hysterical attempt to castigate the president as prejudiced. I cited the incredibly incendiary accusation of my CNN colleague Wajahat Ali who retweeted an article and its headline: “Trump is a racist. If you still support him, so are you.”

Such an immense and broad condemnation of tens of millions of Americans represents, itself, an intensely bigoted tactic. After all, utterly dismissing wide swaths of our society just because they do not share prescribed political preferences represents a wholesale effort to delegitimize and dehumanize; it’s a classic tactic to “otherize,” to borrow a term from the left. Paradoxically, liberals like Ali unveil their own inherent and systemic bigotry by belittling their fellow citizens, merely on the grounds of policy differences. Rather than engage and debate and persuade, the intolerant left chooses the politics of vilification. Their rash judgment deems the “unwashed rabble” of our America First movement as deplorables and racists, simpletons unworthy of real consideration.

When I pointed out this clear chasm between their professed tolerance and real-world bigotry, Mr. Ali admonished me, stating that white Trump supporters “will never love you … no matter how hard you try to be the Latin face of Trump, they will never love you.” This CNN commentator and New York Times writer shamelessly employed an old racist trope, essentially calling me an “Uncle Tom” for daring to be brown and pro-America First. His demeaning comment attempted to remove me of my agency and castigate me as some supplicant intent on pleasing my white betters.

In actuality, I do not view all politics, as Ali does, through the narrow prism of race, and I regard myself as an American citizen and a grown man with his own thoughts. Despite Ali’s disparagement, I am not a caricature seeking the ratification of whites. In fact, I care very little about anyone’s skin color and instead aggressively argue for a new American nationalism that rejects tribalism and instead focuses on citizenship and rejects globalism.

Sadly, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley echoes the divisive designs of my cable news counterparts. Specifically, she told the uber-leftist “woke-palooza” Netroots Nation crowd that “we don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice.” Her message -- really her warning -- was crystal clear: We on the left view you not as a human being with thoughts and dignity and a soul, but rather as a skin-deep political robot. As such, deviations from the progressive party line will not be tolerated, particularly from minorities. Her thinking flows from the same bigoted philosophy that attacked me on CNN Monday night.

Moreover, many minorities like me gravitate to President Trump not because he speaks delicately or because he never offends us (or others), but rather because he has become the political warrior we need. He fights the status quo at home and abroad and demands that the interests of working-class Americans – many of whom are black and brown – take priority. Thus, he works for secure borders to protect minority citizens from illegal alien crime and unfair workforce competition, and restructures trade deals that had decimated manufacturing in America. He has also unleashed the power of small business through tax and regulatory relief, a particularly powerful propellant for our highly entrepreneurial Hispanic communities. This growth explains why Hispanic wage growth now vastly exceeds the national average, a stark contrast to the slow-growth Obama era. Such real-world, tangible improvements easily eclipse the false promises and lofty rhetoric the Democrats have directed toward minorities for decades.

This resurgence will not be deterred by the fear-mongering and intimidation of luminaries of the New York Times, TV news, and the halls of Congress. Their bigotry must be exposed. Their paradoxical prejudice must be revealed. And when these self-serving, manipulative leftist bigots show us who they are, believe them.