The liberal heroes of the hour are not dead white slave-owning presidents but the angry young street activists. For example, the radicals who pulled down the Confederate statue in Durham, N.C., who are affiliated with the socialist revolutionary Workers World Party. Also the thuggish “antifa” (anti-facist) movement, which helped organize demonstrations in Boston last weekend.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, praised the Boston demonstrators in general, saying “the Democratic Party, like those protesters, needs to step up into the patriotic moment.” Ellison sees an advantage in making common cause with the activists and harnessing their energy.

Yet denouncing America’s Founders, defacing the Lincoln Memorial and taking a knee for the Star-Spangled Banner are not the kinds of behavior most Americans would consider patriotic.