The people who want to destroy the Trump presidency demand that John Lewis, be awarded absolute moral authority (shades of Cindy Sheehan) for his public denial of the legitimacy of the next commander-in-chief. At least that is the conclusion one must draw from the torrent of abuse Donald Trump has received for his tweets suggesting that Lewis should better spend his time helping his constituents.

Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

John Hinderaker of Powerline was the first brave man I saw taking on the dictate of the bien pensants that Lewis Must Not Be Criticized.

Lewis is invariably described as a “civil rights icon,” but the man is an utter fraud. He has been coasting on his 50-year-old reputation for decades. Andrew Breitbart exposed Lewis as a liar when he claimed, falsely, to have been subjected to racial epithets by a crowd outside the Capitol. Lewis disgracefully testified against Jeff Sessions’s nomination as Attorney General, again playing the fake race card. And, for what it’s worth, he didn’t consider George W. Bush a legitimate president, either.

There is no reason to treat John Lewis with kid gloves, and Donald Trump doesn’t do so.

Already a leader of the left wing (SNCC) of the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis had the fortune (bad and good) to be savagely beaten on the head by Alabama State Troopers (under the command of Democrat Governor George Wallace), and today bears the visible scars.  This sacrifice in a great and victorious cause, combined with his position as a man of the left, built the armor of an unassailable hero around Lewis.  The American left created a claque around him, requiring any serious discussion of the man to include a disclaimer as to his heroic status and infallibility. He became a valuable weapon: a voice that could present outrageous lies. Such as the phony racist epithets cited above.

This made him the perfect voice to go where no elected representative should go following the operation of the constitutional machinery for picking a president.

I would like to point out that the American public has been fed political garbage before by flawed human beings accorded national hero status.  Charles Lindbergh’s status in the United States in the 1930s exceeded the heroism of Lewis. He was seen as the embodiment of the American spirit, and was almost universally loved throughout media and popular opinion.

But he also thought Chancellor Hitler should be negotiated with and visited the Nazi regime to great fanfare.

(The story doesn’t end there, and Lindbergh did see the light as events proceeded, and provided valuable intelligence on the Luftwaffe. But Lewis’s story does not end here, either.)