In 2009, as Barack Obama began his depredations on the Constitution, I participated in a Tea Party march in Washington.  A number of infiltrators tried to enter the marches, carrying banners designed to put us into a false, and racist, light.  The false flags were intended to draw leftist news media into taking photographs that would characterize Tea Party conservatives as bigots.  Instead, the impostors were soon surrounded by signs saying "they are not us."

I noticed a young black lady, on the National Mall, escorted by white men in dark suits that made them appear to be law enforcement agents.  Once again, I presumed that their purpose was to draw (and record) racist taunts from the million-plus marchers.  Not one of us did anything so hateful.  Far from it, we had black speakers at the rally.  The young lady needed no protection from us.  We would have protected her.

At a later date, black Democrat politicians claimed to have been called racist terms, and even spat upon, on the steps of the Capitol, by conservative demonstrators.  Unfortunately for their propaganda efforts, the event was thoroughly recorded on audio-visual media, which clearly showed that nothing of the sort had happened.

We are not haters.  On the contrary, most of us adhere to the Christian teaching of “love one another” and, even beyond that, to “love thy enemy.” 

But there is a dark side.  In recent months, I have encountered a number of supposed conservatives who actually are what the leftist press gleefully portrays all of us as: bigots.  Some of them even claim to be Christians, while professing hate, even hate for those who worship the God of Abraham and Moses: Jews.

They are not us.

What is ironic is that I have, for months, engaged in an extended online discussion with an Islamist, whose anti-Christian rants could, with slight edits, mirror the anti-Jewish drivel of those who pose as American patriots.  I have learned that it is futile to debate such people, because although they often interject actual facts in support of their position, they abandon reason.  They interpret every fact in the worst possible way, while ignoring or excusing the atrocities committed by their own ilk.  One can only hope to gain insight into their dark souls, and thereby to learn to counter their ability to persuade uninformed people to their views.

To be sure, the political left is largely populated by haters, oftentimes violent.  By screaming accusations against us, they hope to obscure this obvious fact.  By projecting their own flaws on us, they hope to avoid recognizing that they are what they claim to oppose.

To the left, respect for life means being anti-woman, and opposing the celebration of sexual deviancy means we must hate the sinner, not just the sin. 

I despair of changing the minds of bigots of either political party.  I speak instead to those who might otherwise fall for a false prophet.  I recognize that sometimes, in a life-or-death struggle, we must accept the alliance of evil people, much as we allied with Josef Stalin against Adolf Hitler.  But in doing so, we must be aware of what happens afterward: as soon as Stalin's enemy, Hitler, was dead, Stalin trained his guns on us.

Likewise, we must accept the votes of haters, but make no mistake about it: they will soon hate us as well.

When that happens, we must be careful not to hate them back.  We are not they.