ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Because, of course, they want rule of law to reign, a group of citizens began digging up the grave of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis this week over his helping found the Ku Klux Klan.

They only got a few shovelfuls before giving up. But they vowed to return with a backhoe to dig the rest of the man’s grave up later.

Legally speaking, this would be called “grave robbing” and “vandalism,” and might even violate a few of God’s laws, as well. But none of that matters to vigilantes in pursuit against racism and racist racists who practice it.

Real guts, these fine people have, to take a stand against something so popular as racism. Yeah, it’s right up there with gonorrhea, syphilis, flesh-eating amoebas and child rape. Good old red-white-and-blue racism.

But there is a method to this nihilistic madness. Without “racist America,” you would not have the political party known as Democrats. Its entire existence, every dime it raises, every position it takes is based on this century-old cliche that somehow America — the country that invented freedom and self-governance — is still totally racist.

Their leader Nancy Pelosi — a full decade after she became Speaker of the House — is shocked — SHOCKED, I SAY!!! — to find that there are Confederate statues all throughout the Capitol building where she has worked for more than a quarter-century.

Suddenly she finds them “reprehensible” symbols of racism.

“There is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol or in places of honor across the country,” Mrs. Pelosi said.

After, apparently, 30 years of herself celebrating “violent bigotry.”

In this land of dishonest race hucksters, it is always important to remember that small lies never win. They always go for the BIG LIE.

Remind me, again, who was behind all the “violent bigotry” of the Civil War? Oh, yeah, it was Democrats. And who was behind all the vestiges of it over the last century? Democrats.

Mrs. Pelosi knows this, of course, because she worked shoulder-to-shoulder for 23 years beside a retired member of the Ku Klux Klan. That would, of course, be the “great senator” from the “great state” of West Virginia, Robert C. Byrd, a lifelong Democrat.

As the “Exalted Cyclops” of the KKK, Mr. Byrd recruited more than 100 people to join his chapter and warned in a letter against America becoming “degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”

Modern-day Democrats denounced Byrd in 1989 by naming the suite of offices in the U.S. Capitol that house Democrat leadership the “Robert C. Byrd Rooms.”

During Black History Month that year, Democrats talked up Byrd for serving in the Senate “with great distinction for more than 30 years.” They noted his “diligent work, attention to detail, boundless energy and intense loyalty.”

Funny, Adolf Hitler also noted those same prized characteristics in awards he gave his most efficient oven masons and wire-fence builders.

Democrats also denounced Exalted Cyclops Robert C. Byrd by placing him No. 3 in line for the presidency.

And to think that a racist like Donald Trump sits in a seat once reserved (three times removed) for the great Exalted Cyclops Robert C. Byrd!

Anyway, we shall see if Nancy Pelosi and fellow members of the racist Democratic Cartel will call for the dismantling of the Robert C. Byrd Democratic Senate office rooms. Or the 400 bridges, roads and federal buildings that bear his name in West Virginia.

In his defense, Exalted Cyclops and Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd did later renounce his membership in the Klan.

Once, more recently, while advising that young people get involved in politics, he added this admonishment: “Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t get that albatross around your neck. Once you’ve made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena.”

So, nothing to do with the KKK being a bunch of dumb, racist scumbags. It just makes it hard to advance very far in politics.

Unless you are a Democrat in the U.S. Senate.

• Charles Hurt can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com and on Twitter, @charleshurt.