[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]

Over 4000 Allied troops, including over 1500 Americans, died storming the beaches of Normandy on this day in 1944, with thousands more wounded or missing. Today’s Democrat Party chose to honor them with petty political messaging and the hyping of Donald Trump as a threat to democracy comparable to that faced on D-Day.

Failed presidential candidate and Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer Hillary Clinton, not a person known for empathy or for her concern for American troops, diminished the 80th anniversary of D-Day by tweeting a clichéd comparison of the former President to Hitler: “Eighty years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to protect democracy on the shores of Normandy. This November, all we have to do is vote,” she wrote.

Needless to say, this tone-deaf, disrespectful politicization of the sacrifices and heroism displayed by so many young warriors against tyranny was not well-received on social media:

“Holy s*** I despise these people,” Army Ranger veteran Sean Parnell posted. “It’s impossible to capture just how loathsome a comment this is. To cheapen what WWII heroes did to BS garbage politics makes me sick. Again, WWII veterans deserve so much better than this.”

“What kind of shameless, broken, lizard person do you have to be to tweet out some nonsense like this?” wrote ComfortablySmug. “‘Yes I know what it was like for those soldiers on Omaha beach ducking machine gun fire, I went to vote. I am braver than the troops.’ She has never recovered from Trump’s win.”

Ben Shapiro added, “What an enormously stupid and vile comment. Trump is not Hitler. And voting is not storming a beach under a hail of machine-gun fire to free millions from the tyranny of the Nazis.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pulled no punches in response to Hillary, telling Fox News Digital,

Hillary Clinton is a stone-cold loser who presided over the horrific Benghazi debacle that led to the death of Americans. Nobody takes Hillary seriously because it’s clear she is beclowning herself in order to stay relevant after President Trump crushed her in 2016.

Meanwhile, Presidential Figurehead Joe Biden delivered a speech at the anniversary commemorations in Normandy which he turned into a sales pitch for NATO and his forever war in Ukraine, declaring that the world was “living at a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of World War II.”

“Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant, bent on domination,” Biden blathered. “We will not walk away. Because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated, and it will not end there. Ukraine’s neighbors will be threatened. All of Europe will be threatened…” he said. “To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable.”

Biden was later escorted from the festivities while French President Emmanuel Macron remained to greet the living D-Day veterans who were present, many of whom were over 100 years old. “The vets look more with it than Biden,” Ben Domenech tweeted.

In more sincere and powerful expressions of gratitude, the locals have decorated churches throughout Normandy with stained-glass images of the Allied heroes. “For me, when they landed, they were like heroes in a movie,” said Paul Renaud, who was a 14-year-old resident of the Norman town of Sainte Mere Eglise on that day. Renaud never forgot his awed memories of the Allied paratroopers, and went on to become an artist who designed a stained-glass tribute to them in a medieval church at the center of town (a detail of which is pictured above).

Progressives have no such appreciation or respect for the past, particularly when it comes to valorizing American exceptionalism or the glories and triumphs of Western civilization. This is one reason they are always rewriting history to diminish, if not actually demonize, the role of America and the West in shaping the first civilization in history to champion freedom, democracy, and human rights.

The neo-Marxists of today’s Democrat Party, who are currently in the process of the woke subversion of our military, are simply incapable of genuinely honoring our nation’s warriors, past and present. On the Memorial Day just passed, for example, anti-American Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush both shared social media posts that day which they apparently confused with Veteran’s Day, demonstrating that they don’t care about either. Called out about it online, Omar and Bush quickly deleted the posts and replaced them with perfunctory Memorial Day messaging. Fellow “Squad” radical Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez eventually posted a message that was more of a photo op, and Squad comrade Rashida Tlaib couldn’t even be bothered to post anything at all about Memorial Day.

On this day, it’s worth pointing to a presidential D-Day commemoration speech that captured the proper reverential tone and avoided exploitation for political purposes. In contrast to Democrat disrespect, you may recall that Threat to Democracy™ Trump delivered a widely-hailed speech at the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, in which he stated, in part,

Today, we remember those who fell, and we honor all who fought right here in Normandy.  They won back this ground for civilization.

[…]

When you were young, these men enlisted their lives in a Great Crusade — one of the greatest of all times.  Their mission is the story of an epic battle and the ferocious, eternal struggle between good and evil.

[…]

Seven decades ago, the warriors of D-Day fought a sinister enemy who spoke of a thousand-year empire.  In defeating that evil, they left a legacy that will last not only for a thousand years, but for all time — for as long as the soul knows of duty and honor; for as long as freedom keeps its hold on the human heart.

[…]

The blood that they spilled, the tears that they shed, the lives that they gave, the sacrifice that they made, did not just win a battle.  It did not just win a war.  Those who fought here won a future for our nation.  They won the survival of our civilization.  And they showed us the way to love, cherish, and defend our way of life for many centuries to come.

Amen.

Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior.