Displaying their usual grace to their defeated opponents, leftist forces of “tolerance” and “diversity” chanted and sang, “Na na na na, na na na na, he he hey, goodbye,” as the Confederate flag was lowered in South Carolina last week. One observer described them to me as modern anti-Lincolns, showing none of the grace that Lincoln showed the defeated Confederacy after the Civil War.

And why would they? The left displays what cultural Marxist Herbert Marcuse called “repressive tolerance.” The Frankfurt School neo-Marxist urged “intolerance against movements from the Right, and toleration of movements from the Left.”

And for the left, any Southerner with even slight sympathy for states’ rights in the face of the federal Leviathan is a retrograde, unregenerate, Neanderthal, knuckle-dragging, hate-filled racist -- a “rightist” of worst extreme, a closet white-hooded slaver. Such a Southerner (the Old South was Democrat) is a modern hybrid of Hitler and a KKK grand wizard. Like those who oppose gay marriage, such a Southerner is seen as motivated by nothing but unrestrained hate. Such loathsome people should not be tolerated and, quite the contrary, must be mocked -- ridiculed in defeat. They merit the equivalent of dancing or defecating on a slain enemy’s grave.

Notably, I say this as a Lincoln-admiring “Northerner” (lifetime Pennsylvanian) with no warm feelings for the Confederate flag whatsoever. Quite the contrary. I have no dog in this fight.

But I do say this as someone who studies the left, where hypocrisy and double standards always exceed anything the right could ever pull off. And I find it fascinating, and fitting, that the left gleefully celebrates the lowering of the Confederate flag as it gleefully celebrates the raising of the rainbow flag of the gay-rights movement, the crowning touch coming with President Obama literally illuminating the White House in rainbow colors after the Supreme Court’s hideous gay-marriage ruling.

That was another quintessentially anti-Lincoln moment. Obama, who once claimed he opposed redefining marriage as a Christian, here offered another in-your-face moment courtesy of the American left. Countless Americans, bitterly wounded by their court rendering unto itself the right to redefine marriage -- a power once the province of the laws of nature and nature’s God in this Judeo-Christian country -- needed comfort from their leader at their nation’s first house. Instead, Obama’s rainbow illumination was viewed by many Christians as a mocking inversion of God’s use of the rainbow.

The left will howl sneeringly at that very thought, but that’s precisely the point. Where is the grace toward the defeated?

Again, the anti-Lincoln.

But for a bitter taste of the far left’s cynical positioning on these issues, check out People’s World, house organ of Communist Party USA and successor to the Soviet-funded and directed Daily Worker. For several days, the lead piece in the rotating window at People’s World has cheered the removing of the Confederate flag. Accompanied with a photo of someone holding an Obama-esque placard declaring, “CHANGE HAS COME,” the article begins with this rich summation: “CHARLESTON, S.C. -- South Carolina on Friday removed the symbol of racism and hatred, the Confederate flag, from the grounds of the State House.”

Behold the left’s touted sophistication and nuance: the Confederate flag equals racism and hatred, and absolutely nothing more. There can be no other reasons. None. The enemy must be caricatured, simplified, demonized, represented in a solely and wholly contemptuous way serviceable to the left’s goals of fundamental transformation.

The People’s World piece then echoed all of the left’s Marcusean-Orwellian double-speak on “tolerance” and “diversity,” while also invoking its presidential face in the New America:

A huge and diverse crowd cheered…. A roar went up from the crowds as the flag lowered and they burst into song when it was finally down.

“South Carolina taking down the Confederate flag -- a signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future,” President Obama tweeted…. Chants of “take it down” eventually morphed into chants of “U.S.A.” as the flag was lowered.

Note the propaganda/deception that communists long ago mastered: There’s no mention of the chants of mockery. The organizers are portrayed as the prototype Great Americans. They sang not songs of contempt for their trounced opponents, but patriotic hymns displaying their great love for America. They, like the communists, are the truest Americans.

The article closed with a classic flurry of Marcusean “tolerance:”

“This is a real victory -- one we’ve been working toward for 15 years, and it opens the door to even more victories across the nation,” said Cornell William Brooks, speaking for the NAACP. “This symbol of hatred and intolerance does not belong in our public spaces or on government property.”

The NAACP is calling on people to let their state legislators and governors know that it is time to ban display of the Confederate flag on any government property.

Last year California passed a law banning the display or sale of the Confederate flag or any representations of the Confederate flag except for educational or historical purposes.

“This should be the standard for the entire nation,” Brooks said.

Ah, yes. “Liberals” yet again demonstrate their “tolerance” and “diversity” by not merely not tolerating things they disagree with, but by using state power to outright ban them. That should be the standard for the entire nation! the left proclaims.

The flag of cultural Marxism is flying high in America.

Significantly, this article follows a literal full month of People’s World daily posts commemorating “LGBT” Pride. You would not have seen the Confederate flag at People’s World last month, but plenty of rainbow flags.

That in itself is instructive. For the far left, the rainbow flag is an emblem of its longtime attacks on natural, traditional, biblical family and marriage. In the case of the cultural Marxists, from Herbert Marcuse to the likes of Wilhelm Reich, it’s a symbol of success in redefining and reshaping not just family and marriage but sexuality and gender. It’s emblematic of the radical left’s takedown of Judeo-Christian values and culture.

As for the Confederate flag, ironically, the comrades would (privately) agree with proud Southerners that it’s indeed about states’ rights. And the far left hates states’ rights. For communists, nothing is as supremely preferable as a single, large, central government collectivizing everyone’s lives. The idea of the federal juggernaut deigning to share any power with states is anathema.

And please, no lectures from communists pointing the finger at Southerners for slavery. Communists are the inheritors of the country that invented the Gulag, that took human degradation to levels unseen in the history of humanity. Their party saluted the Soviet red flag.

“The workers of this country and the workers of every country have only one flag and that is the red flag,” said William Z. Foster, chairman of Communist Party USA, to Congress in the 1930s. CPUSA members were loyal Soviet patriots. One of them was Frank Marshall Davis, mentor to Barack Obama, who, in his July 20, 1946 Party-Line Chicago Star, wrote: “I salute the Soviet Union…. I honor the Red nation.”

Today, communist publications like People’s World hoist the rainbow flag and denounce the Confederate flag. They do so in the name of “tolerance” while, in truth, the flag they really salute is the worst symbol of intolerance.

Paul Kengor’s latest book is Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage. His other books include The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.