It is fitting that on the first night of Joe Biden and the Democrats’ national convention, Michelle Obama is a featured speaker. After all, it was Michelle Obama who said 12 years ago, while her husband was running for President, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

At the time it shocked many Americans. The very idea that the spouse of someone running for our nation’s highest elected office was not proud of America seemed mind-boggling. We now see that Mrs. Obama was merely pulling back the curtain and letting us see the inner thinking of the Leftist elite in the Democrat party.

Antifa-clad mobs are tearing down statues and defacing monuments of our Founding Fathers and other Americans that Americans have chosen to honor. This is the logical destination for an ideology that, at its core, believes America is bad and deserves to be condemned. Democrat mayors order law enforcement to stand down when these travesties occur, showing that their true sympathies lie with the mob.

While the Left’s attacks seem to be aimed at the character of our founders – “they grew tobacco, some owned slaves, women were not able to vote” – it is really an attack on our country’s founding principles.

The proof of this is the Left’s full embrace of “cancel culture.” One dares not express an idea that does not conform to the current politically correct lexicon. If you do, the social media mob will bombard you with hate. You will be “doxed;” your personal information such as your name, address, and phone number will be publicized. Pressure will be placed on your employer or shareholders to have you removed from your job and your livelihood destroyed. It does not matter if the remarks were made a decade or more in the past. You must conform to the ever-shifting standards and language of today’s Left.

These are tactics that do not come from America’s founding, they come from Communist Chinese Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Young people were unleashed by Mao to topple statues of his nation’s past and “free thinkers” were intimidated into total conformity of speech.

“Cancel culture” is a direct assault on the First Amendment’s freedom of speech. Liberals used to be champions of the First Amendment, back when groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would famously defend the rights of all people to speak, regardless if they were on the “left” or the “right.” Now, even the ACLU has caved to the social media mob.

Other speakers at the Democrat Convention this week will be Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Two people who routinely and openly criticize our country and our founding principles. The curtain that Michelle Obama briefly pulled aside is now wide open: Democrat elites are not proud of America, and Joe Biden is showing his cards by featuring these people at his convention.

Consider this: Why would a business owner ever put someone in charge of their business or organization who is openly hostile to what their business or organization stands for? Yet, that is exactly what the Democrats are asking millions of Americans to do.

And this is why they hate Donald Trump so much – because he wants to Make America Great Again, while they do not believe America ever was, is, or will be great.

If you want our nation to be great, the choice this November is crystal clear.

Dr. Kelli Ward is a family physician, two-term Arizona state senator, and the chairwoman of the Republican Party of Arizona. On Twitter: @KelliWardAZ