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Oh say can you see, by the Democrats’ gaslight? What an extraordinary time in our American story. A major political party and a washed up professional athlete’s shoe company have declared open season on our nation the very week we’re supposed to be celebrating her.

It’s not a new idea. It’s just a new level. It’s understood and they’ve made it plain that liberals have always, genuinely hated this country as founded. No matter the court rulings, the apologies, the legislative fixes, or social engineering policies of government agencies – they just can’t find it in their heart to warm to the good ol’ U.S.A.

Mostly because we’re a nation made up of individuals and free thinkers. We’re a diverse map where different regions of the country share distinctly different values. And that’s the problem for Democrats. Try as they might, the American left just can’t seem to get everyone’s head in line with their set of values and beliefs.

So, the only thing left to do they’ve figured, is to begin to dismantle, discredit, and attack her from within. Aggressively. By any means necessary. We’re seeing it unfold right now.

The Democratic debates were telling. In the midst of a roaring economy, California Senator Kamala Harris won great praise for her well-rehearsed line, “Guys, Americans don’t want to watch a food fight. They want to know how we’re going to put food on their table.”

Huh? More gaslighting. I’ll grant her one thing: it’s a great line if it were 1930. But there are too many “now hiring” signs for that to make a bit of sense in 2019. Further, the only widespread, dire and destitute existences you’ll find are in the tent cities of America’s largest metro areas...run by Democrats.

Ultimately, tent cities and squalor are not only where liberalism leads us, but it’s where Democrats need us to go. A massive decline in living standards is required to allow them a foothold in managing the misery.

How about the crisis at our southern border mere months ago they claimed wasn’t a crisis at all, but rather a manufactured show by President Trump? That tune has changed. News of Democrats’ unwillingness to help build a wall and reform asylum rules has spread like wildfire to our south. So have Democrats' personal attacks on our Border Patrol agents as well as their candidates’ public promise of free goodies upon arrival.

Thousands of illegal immigrants and their human traffickers are flooding our borders with children claiming asylum. Additionally, with the help of Democratic members of Congress and activist attorneys, our illegal guests are telling unsubstantiated tales of abuse and mistreatment in our government-run “concentration camps.”

President Trump correctly and simply tweeted, “If illegal immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detention centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved.” Pretty easy to understand, and nothing untrue there.

Democrats have gone from “manufactured crisis” to “concentration camps” inside of six months. All the while not only doing nothing to stop it but also calling for taxpayer funded health insurance for anyone who can get here and accusing our law enforcement at the border of being cruel just trying to stop the flow.

Democrats support policies making the U.S. Treasury unsustainable no matter how aggressively guys like Bernie Sanders promise we’ll all be taxed. A welfare state with open borders isn’t sustainable. They’re running a campaign against basic math.

They’re also campaigning against common sense. Why should we have borders or customs or doors at all? It’s other-wordly. It’s newspeak. It’s maddening to normal people. It’s gaslighting.

Meanwhile, Nike was set to launch a new shoe to celebrate Independence Day. The new Air Max 1 USA featured a U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle on the heel of the shoe. The design is commonly referred to as the Betsy Ross flag from the era of the American Revolution.

Our nation’s kneeler-in-chief, the washed up former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick also pitches Nike products. The man who’s paid homage to Black Lives Matter’s motto of “pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon” on his socks has done remarkably well selling grievance and shoes for Nike.

So when he personally called Nike to say the image of the Betsy Ross flag was offensive because of its connection to an era of slavery, Nike slavishly responded by pulling the shoes from the market.

Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro piled on comparing the Betsy Ross flag to the Confederate Flag. Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson responded by asking, “Why don’t we wear, a swastika for July fourth?”

That’s TOTALLY analogous, right? Assuming we were living in Germany…and there was a revolution fought in Germany to break away from another country’s rule…and in doing so, Frau Betsy sewed a flag to represent 13 autonomous German colonies...and those colonies were represented by tiny swastikas…which actually represented a master race and not colonies at all… Totally analogous!

Gaslighting. I live minutes from America’s most historic square mile in Philadelphia, home to Betsy Ross’ house, Independence Hall, Declaration House and so many more Revolutionary era treasures of our nation’s founding. According to the Democrat’s new standard, we may as well doze it all to the ground rather than celebrate there today, because...slave era.

Finally, MSNBC’s Joy Reid suggested this week that President Trump’s Independence Day celebration featuring a display of our military hardware on the National Mall is meant to send a message to those who oppose him. “I’ve got tanks. I have a military armada. The message is a threat (to those who resist him.)”

Did you see what happened to gay, Asian journalist Andy Ngo when he dared to simply film the Antifa protests in Portland, Oregon this week? He was beaten within an inch of his life, while the Democratic mayor ordered police inaction.

Remember when Democrat Maxine Waters encouraged people to “get in the faces” of Trump affiliates, which many good liberals did and are still doing? Major publications like the New York Times and the Washington Post are printing editorials encouraging the pubic identifying and harassing of border agents and tampering with the food of political opponents if you serve them in restaurants.

Democrats flirt with everyone from Antifa, to Occupy Wall Street, to the aforementioned Black Lives Matter destructors. The mayor of Baltimore once said they needed “the space to destroy.” President Obama invited them to the White House many times for summits.

They stage atrocities to smear normal people because normal people don’t do what the militant wing of the Democratic Party wants them to do, Jussie Smollett, for example. It wasn’t long ago a Bernie Sanders supporter tried to gun down dozens of Republican Congress members.

Democrats have shown they will use clever branding names like Antifa, BLM, and Occupy, as well as identity politics, to achieve their goals by force. It’s not done out of concern for the environment, or race relations, or human rights – it’s done to seize power and crush individual rights.

Yet we’re supposed to fear tanks on the National Mall, tax cuts, deregulation, a roaring economy and a country first agenda over getting “milkshaked” in Portland, “doxxed” in the New York Times, or our food contaminated at a restaurant?

Normal Americans see what’s going on, and they know when they’re being lied to. This Independence Day, most of us will still celebrate the greatness of our nation and the amazing revolution we fought to create a place of freedom and liberty for all of us.

Even Democrats - who’ve officially replaced “the rocket’s red glare” with gaslighting.