“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32)

After the shootings in Dayton and El Paso the rhetoric from the political Left has become increasingly brazen when it comes to distortion of the truth. This is particularly the case with left-leaning mainstream media and the Democratic political machine. “Distorting” the truth is when the assertions made are connected to a Kernel of truth, inaccuracies are so slanted by bias as to become agenda driven lies. As Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels stated: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” The Left is repeating some big lies enough we are in danger of believing. It’s time to get back to accuracy and therefore truth about what’s happening in the country.

First, increasingly inaccurate distortions of the truth about mass shooters is becoming ubiquitous. Specifically, since the El Paso and Dayton shootings, mainstream media and the Democratic party have been making repeated false assertions about mass shooters being solely “white supremacists.” They sometimes caveat with “or almost all” or “virtually all,” but the impression left is of mass shooters being exclusively white supremacists and American having a “white nationalist” as the number one terror threat. This distortion grows with each report, and drives the dialogue and calls for the FBI to focus their resources toward domestic white supremacist terror above all other threats facing the nation, including the kind of Islamist terror threat which killed three thousand Americans on 9-11. It results in stigmatizing one gender and race, particularly conservatives of the group, and drives Leftist radical groups like Antifa toward violence against that group.

The facts about the mass shooters tells a far different story from the Liberal narrative. Of the mass shooters in recent decades, only 54% were white. That is beneath the overall percentage of whites in the American population. (EDITOR’S NOTE: when it comes to killing 4 or more people, whites are at 29%.) When numbers were taken of all violent shootings, whites make up only a tiny fraction of the white percentage in America. The San Bernardino and Orlando mass shooters were Muslims of Asian/Middle Eastern descent. The Virginia Tech shooter was of Asian descent. The Virginia Beach shooter was African-American.  These are but a few of the variations from the narrative.

Bible verse written on the entrance to the first CIA headquarters near Washington, D.C.

From the evidence available, not only are white shooters less of a threat (based on percentages of racial groups within the nation), but white mass shooters are not predominately white supremacists. Yes, the shooter in El Paso wrote a manifesto in which he justified his attacks upon anti-immigrant motives (he also made pro-environment and anti-corporation/capitalism sentiments), but that was a singular case among mass shooters in the US.  The deadliest shooting in modern history, the Las Vegas shooting, was targeted against whites at a country music concert. Clearly not the result of white supremacist ideology. Many of the recent shooters have identified with the Democratic Party and Liberal causes, like the shooter in Dayton, who was an avowed Elizabeth Warren supporter. The only clear connection among shooters is the fatherhood problem: 26 of the last 27 mass shooters were males raised in households without fathers. If the objective facts about mass shooters were reported in truth, we might see more of an effort to encourage intact, traditional families as one means of combating shootings.

Similar to the mass shooter distortion, many Liberals assert and repeat distortions of the truth about President Trump to label him a racist. When Trump spoke about parts of Baltimore being “rat” infested, the Left went into overdrive spinning Trump as making racist statements about African-Americans. This is despite Trump previously claiming New Hampshire (98% white) was drug “infested” due to the opioid epidemic. Using rat “infested” is not racist, period. In a closed door meeting with Congressional leaders, some Democratic politicians claimed President Trump called Haiti and parts of Africa a derogatory term. Trump and the Congressional Republicans at the meeting denied those allegations of what was said. Regardless of the disputed accounts, the Left not only presents the Democratic allegations as fact, but then exaggerates the spin to drive the racist narrative.

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy, he said that he believes Mexico is not sending “its best” over the border illegally, and that many were likely rapists and other criminals, as well as some fine people. Trump did not say that all Mexicans in America or Mexico were criminals, nor that America should stop or even limit legal immigration from Mexico. His statement was solely focused on those illegally crossing the southern border, and the danger he believed it posed to America and the need for a wall. Many can disagree with Trump’s statement about those illegally crossing the southern border. The danger comes with the attempts to distort the truth, particularly in an agenda driven “race card” attach, which threatens the foundations of our American Republic.

It’s time we demand that truth from those reporting the news and alleged facts about critical events. American Democracy is predicated upon the people of America learning the truth, which then drives public discourse and decision-making and voting. As Jesus told us: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. It’s time we heeded Jesus’ words about the value of truth and demand the distortions stop.

Bill Connor, is an Orangeburg attorney, Army Infantry Colonel and author of the book “Articles from War.”