There's no reason for Charlottesville, Virginia, and other Southern cities to remove statues like that of Robert E. Lee as long as racist Democrats continue to be honored throughout the country, contends Dinesh D'Souza, author of the sensational historical expose "The Big Lie: Exposing The Nazi Roots Of The Far Left."

D'Souza blasted the national media and Charlottesville officials for creating a disastrous conflict based on a lie.

"Let's start with the fact this whole thing was kicked off because of an attempt to take down a monument to Robert E. Lee," D'Souza told WND. "Here's the irony: Robert E. Lee was the most decorated soldier in the U.S. Army. He was a man of unimpeachable integrity. Lincoln offered him command of the Union Army, but Lee refused only because his loyalty was to Virginia. Lee opposed both secession and slavery.

"And yet to the historically illiterate left, a man who opposed both slavery and secession has come to symbolize both slavery and secession."

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D'Souza said the controversy is a massive attempt at historical misdirection.

Instead of truthfully confronting American history, D'Souza alleges the left-wing media and the Democratic Party are trying to pin the blame for slavery and racism on those who do not deserve it.

"To me there's a bigger story here – the left's attempt to blame slavery entirely on the American South," the author contended. "This is a big lie, because number one, most Southerners did not own slaves, nor did most Confederate soldiers. Number two, the Northern Democrats in the preceding 40 years before the Civil War aggressively protected slavery. And they worked in cahoots with Southern Democrats.

"The fight over slavery wasn't between North and South. It was between a pro-slavery Democratic Party and the anti-slavery Republicans. This entire controversy, and the larger effort to remove Confederate memorials all over the South, is an attempt to cunningly conceal the Democrats' historic role in protecting slavery as an institution."

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Though it seems like ancient history, D'Souza argues the issue has deeply significant modern consequences. While Confederate soldiers have their memories slandered, even though many of them were simply defending their own homes, D'Souza points out Democrats who imposed racist policies are still honored by America's party of the left.

It's repeated endlessly by the liberal media. By the Democrats. By the professors. By the hypocritical celebrities in Hollywood. It's the single biggest lie about American history and American politics – a lie so shameless and grandiose you'll wonder how they are getting away with it. Dinesh D'Souza is back to tell you about "The Big Lie: Exposing The Nazi Roots Of The American Left." Available NOW in the WND Superstore. If you want to understand American politics today, don't miss it!

"Regarding the monuments, I would only say Robert E. Lee has a much more honorable history than many Democrats who have a much more sordid history with slavery, racism and fascism," D'Souza said.

"To take just one example, let's look at former West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, who was a deeply important figure in the modern Democratic Party. Seemingly half of West Virginia is named after Robert Byrd! And yet this was a man who was not only associated with racism, but was a leader in his state's chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. This is from the modern era – yet no one is calling for his name to be taken down from street signs, buildings named after him to be altered or his memory damned by the state of West Virginia.

"The bottom line is when a figure is in the Democratic Party, regardless of how racist he or she was, no one in the media draws attention to the history involved. Someone like Lee can't even be mentioned in the same breath as Byrd."

D'Souza also condemned President Andrew Jackson, whom he characterized as the founder of the Democratic Party.

"I'll concede some progressives have protested against Andrew Jackson recently, but most Democrats around the country are still celebrating 'Jefferson-Jackson Day' dinners as part of the history of their party. Yet Jackson has a sordid history – not only of slavery but of genocide against the Native Americans, including the Cherokee Indians. I'd say even Donald Trump is making a mistake by honoring Jackson."

Yet while Jackson is at least regarded as controversial, Democrats who are almost universally celebrated by modern progressives also have a deeply troubling history, according to D'Souza.

Noted progressive Woodrow Wilson, for example, prominently championed the racist film, "The Birth Of A Nation," sparking a modern day revival of the Ku Klux Klan.

"Wilson was almost single handed[ly] responsible for bringing back the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century," charged D'Souza. "By screening a pro-KKK film in the White House, gave the Klan a new lease on life. Here's a progressive icon and he's implicated directly."

More surprisingly, as D'Souza chronicles in "The Big Lie," Franklin Delano Roosevelt, arguably the most successful and revered Democratic president, also has a troubled history.

"FDR was actually an admirer of Mussolini – and this admiration was mutual," contends D’Souza. "As I show in the book, FDR sent members of his administration to fascist Italy to study Mussolini's system of government because he thought it was even more progressive than the New Deal. Mussolini himself reviewed Roosevelt's New Deal in an Italian magazine and concluded he was a fascist."

Even John F. Kennedy, the icon of many left-wing baby boomers, has a problematic past.

"Young JFK had enthusiastic things to say about Hitler," said D’Souza. "Even in 1945, JFK was calling Hitler 'a legend.'"

The consequence of all of this, says D'Souza, is a deeply dishonest climate of moral hysteria that fuels misguided crusades like the attempts to tear down statues and foster hatred against the South.

"None of what I'm telling you is controversial," said D’Souza. "It's all irrefutable fact. No one is calling for renaming anything dedicated to John F. Kennedy, for example. Yet we are supposed to go insane over statues named after people from centuries ago.

"The reality is that the outrage of the left is not only highly selective, but it's highly defective. Leftists exonerate the biggest collaborators with slavery, racism, and fascism. Instead, they pick on people like General Lee, who have a far more defensible history."

Thus, what led to violence in Charlottesville was not just "Antifa" or the refusal of the police to intervene. It was a long campaign of misinformation which culminated in Americans killing each other in the streets because the country can no longer agree on historical truth.

"On the surface we seem to be discussing monuments," concluded D'Souza. "Yet monuments are simply testaments to the way we remember our own history. But our history is being spun to serve a big lie. The big lie is the bad guy is the South, or America, or the white man is responsible for slavery, racism and/or fascism. But the most culpable bad guy is never named by the progressives. And that bad guy that is never named is the Democratic Party."

It's repeated endlessly by the liberal media. By the Democrats. By the professors. By the hypocritical celebrities in Hollywood. It's the single biggest lie about American history and American politics – a lie so shameless and grandiose you'll wonder how they are getting away with it. Dinesh D'Souza is back to tell you about "The Big Lie: Exposing The Nazi Roots Of The American Left." Available NOW in the WND Superstore. If you want to understand American politics today, don’t miss it!