Bless their little pointed academic left-wing heads over there at NPR. Just today, I received one of their regular missives on the subject of "attacks" on the Dems' new nominee in waiting, the venerable Kamala Harris. As usual, NPR is out in front of the media curve and has assumed the role of linguistic bodyguard for the Veep and her supporters.

How, you say? Simple. By resorting to calling criticisms -- whether justified or not -- of the Vice-President as negative messages or attacks, their truth-challenged and tunnel-visioned editors have chosen sides and are going for the gold at what they consider the mischaracterization of Americans' comments about the sacred cows of politicians (no offense meant to cows) as argumentative, mean, and nasty or just plain unwarranted now that the VP is heading up the Dems' dance card. They bemoan the existence of memes, but are willing to create and promote their own (like calling simple criticisms attacks) especially when it comes to protecting a mixed-race female who happens to occupy the second most powerful job in these here United States.

The first commandment of DEI says: "Thou shalt not criticize anyone who is either: member of a mixed race or a minority, female person or aspiring to be female person, one who is Left-leaning, an abortion proponent, climate zealot, open borders advocate or any combination of the above." Judging by the number of people who fit into those categories, you can see that the protection racket has to be big enough and widespread enough to cover a whole helluva lot of ground. This includes, but is not limited to, those who got where they are simply by being born into a body created by others and were appointed or chosen for their positions because it was their group's turn. It also extends to those who are under or unqualified for their jobs, but who protect them by playing their race or gender card whenever they feel threatened.

Social media is a double-edged sword

At first, NPR and other special interest organizations embraced social media and hailed it as America's new open doorway to unfettered public discourse. That was before all the conservatives decided to weigh in on Facebook and Twitter and now Truth Social and are regularly calling out the abuses of power that have increased exponentially since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took over. Now social media is a breeding ground (according to them) for hate speech and unfair attacks (there's that word again) on their chosen ones. Now with only three plus months to go before V-Day they've traded in their chain mail for email and are peppering the public with warnings about the demise of democracy if Donald Trump is elected President. And should he end up beating Kamala at the ballot box, the airwaves of NPR and the other elite media will be crying foul and playing the Jussie Smollett card. Should that happen, the Left will be forced to do a 180 and accuse the Right of rigging an election. For how could anyone not vote for such a likeable, mixed-race female with no demonstrable track record in her job or any measureable managerial ability?

It would boggle the mind, but as we all know, we are not allowed to have boggled minds when it comes to choosing our leaders, no matter how unsavory or unappetizing the choices might be.

Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush administrations.  He is the author of fourteen books, seven of which are on American politics and has written over 1,400 articles on politics, economics, and social trends.  He can be reached at stephenhelgesen@gmail.com

Image: NPR, Fair Use