Slavery to an ideology disconnected from the word of God produces ignorance and bigotry.

Vice President Kamala Harris is not stupid. Her parents earned graduate degrees from Cal Berkeley. Harris graduated from Howard University. She earned a law degree from a solid school in San Francisco.

Her nervous cackle and occasional illogical word salads cause her political foes to question her intelligence. I don't. The political ideology she's forced to defend provokes ignorance.

Her boss, President Joe Biden, and her party have framed any attempt to verify the identity of voters as a new form of Jim Crow laws intent on disenfranchising black, brown, poor, city, and rural voters.

On Friday, BET host Soledad O'Brien asked Harris if she would politically compromise on calls for enhanced voter ID requirements. The vice president's response sparked derision across social media.

"I don't think that we should underestimate what that could mean," Harris replied. "Because in some people's mind, that means, well, you're going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove you are who you are. Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don't … there's no Kinko's, there's no OfficeMax near them.

"People have to understand when we're talking about voter ID laws, be clear about who you have in mind and what would be required of them to prove who they are. Of course people have to prove who they are, but not in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to prove who they are."

It's a ridiculous response. But what was she supposed to say, given the position of the Democratic Party? Had she followed her party's script and argued that black people in major cities struggle to acquire government IDs, we would be calling it Kamala's Kinko's Komment.

She gave the best answer possible given the current Democratic Party playbook, which is nothing more than a derivative of the KKK's philosophy.

The current ideology of the left is that America houses a vast number of people — black, white and brown — incapable of taking care of basic responsibilities because of systemic oppression. All standards of responsibility must be lowered so that these helpless people can survive in a system that exploits them.

That summarizes the platform of the left. Empathy justifies the ideology. Pity fuels the reaction. Unfortunately, the absence of both faith in a higher power and belief in the equality of man transforms empathy and pity into a lethal mixture of ignorance, bigotry, and elitism.

Religious conservatives do not lack empathy or pity. Their faith combined with their belief in the equality of mankind causes them to pursue a teach-a-man-to-fish approach to inequality.

I'm a religious conservative, not a political one. I've never voted. Throughout my life, empathy and pity have driven me to reach back and provide opportunities for family members, friends, and young people from more difficult circumstances than my own. I've never lowered standards for anyone I've helped. If they're unwilling to meet my standards, I move on and help those willing to step up. If they choose to seek excuses or wallow in a victim mentality, I move on and help those willing to step up.

I could rattle off countless stories and examples. I'll mention one.

Years ago, a Ball State football player, Dante Love, broke his neck during a football game against Indiana University. I was at the game. I went to the hospital that night to check on him. He was a high-level NFL prospect. His football career ended that night. He came from a very difficult background. People were depending on him making the NFL. I promised him that night, when he thought he might never walk again, that I would help him transition to a new life without football.

Dante regained use of his lower extremities. He graduated from Ball State. Over the next couple of years, he had a difficult time adjusting to civilian life as a non-pampered, non-potential pro athlete. He felt sorry for himself. He thought the world owed him something. He was irresponsible.

Frustrated, I called Isiah Thomas, the NBA legend, for advice. Isiah came from a background as difficult as Dante's. Isiah advised me to remove my support. I called Dante and had him drive to my apartment. I had him remove his few belongings from the car I had loaned him, parked the car in my extra parking spot, and left Dante to fend for himself.

I didn't care how or if he made it back to his apartment. I didn't speak to Dante for months. The next time I talked to him, he was a changed man. He's been a changed man ever since. He calls the day I left him standing in the street a blessing from God.

Over the past decade, Dante Love has become one of the best human beings I know. He's a terrific father to his 9-year-old son, Dante Jr. He's a self-taught biblical scholar. He's built a successful career at Aerotek. I consider Dante my son.

He learned to fish. I could write a book on all the obstacles Dante has overcome. My brief telling of his story does not remotely do his life justice.

It's insulting when I hear elite politicians argue that poor people or rural people can't do this or that. David slayed Goliath, Dante slayed innumerable hardships, but I'm supposed to believe poor black and white people can't secure government IDs?

This thinking is elitist bigotry brought on by ideological slavery and an unethical pursuit of political power.

Are political conservatives unethical in their pursuit of power? No question. Is their pursuit of power built on the racist premise that black people are incapable of taking care of themselves or the elitist premise that poor whites are too stupid to know what's best for them? I don't see it.

The sales pitch of Kamala Harris' political party is founded in anti-black racism and white supremacy. Many of the high-profile black advocates of the Democratic Party's approach believe their success can be directly attributed to the lowering of standards. This is especially true of black liberals with Ivy League degrees.

On average, they enter Harvard, Yale, etc., with lower test scores, grade point averages, and family wealth than their white peers. They're made to feel inferior and dependent on white empathy and pity. Many of them carry those feelings of inferiority and dependence the rest of their lives. Those who reject those feelings and/or fail to promote black dependence on white help are quickly branded as disloyal sellouts.

I've never felt inferior to anyone a day in my life. My faith doesn't allow it. My father wouldn't allow it. I'm appreciative of the people who have helped me throughout my career. But I put the work in.

In 1991, I almost cost myself my first full-time job. The Charlotte Observer required me to do a two-week tryout before offering me a job in its Rock Hill, S.C., bureau. At the completion of the audition, the editor smugly told me I was an affirmative action hire. I told her not to give me the job if I was unqualified.

"I just showed you the last two weeks I can do the job," I said.

Over the next 14 months, I set fire to the rain inside that bureau. At a salary of $23,000, I wrote more front-page, attention-grabbing stories in a handful of months than people the newspaper was paying three times as much to write A1 stories. The biggest criticism in my yearly evaluation was that I worked too many hours. When I left the Charlotte Observer for a much better, higher-paying job, the editor of the entire paper, Rich Oppel, a man I'd never met, was furious. He hunted me down and told me:

"You'll come back through the same door you're leaving."

He didn't offer me a promotion or a raise. He suggested I was uppity and ungrateful.

I don't want to disparage all white liberals. I know some awesome ones. However, the bigotry I've faced in the media industry has come exclusively from white liberals angered by my refusal to submit to their control and superiority.

I was booted from ESPN's "The Sports Reporters" because I refused to adopt Mike Lupica's narrative on steroid abuse among professional athletes. All of my allegedly controversial departures (my departures from Rupert Murdoch's Fox Sports were non-controversial) had a common denominator — a white liberal who thought my existence and success were a kick in the nuts.

Anti-black racism and white supremacy exist. We're blaming the wrong people and the wrong political ideology for their existence.