Editor’s Note: In his newsletter this weekend, Gov. Mike Huckabee answered the concerns of a left-leaning reader. He hopes, if you like his response, you will share this column with friends and family of all political persuasions.

From Karen B:

Just a note for my right-leaning family and friends from my left-leaning self as we near voting day:

They say we want to disband police departments (and that we hate the police): we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and unnecessary police brutality and for those who abuse their power to be held accountable.

They say we want to release all prisoners: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and ensure the punishments match the crimes and to deprivatize prisons.

They say we want open borders: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want asylum seekers to be given their chance to seek asylum. We want to help people who are cg from unimaginable terror and poverty help to give them the chances we have. We want to ensure children aren’t separated from their parents and that nobody is kept in cages. But we do want proper vetting.

They say we want to take away your guns: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want logical gun control to help prevent mass shootings.

They say we want to wage a war on Christianity and Christian values: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all religions to be able to practice and worship freely.

They say we want to get everything for free: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to work hard and make sure that healthcare and education are affordable for all.

They say we want a war against traditional marriage: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all sexual orientations to be able to love freely, no matter who you love.

They say we want to destroy or rewrite history: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to recognize the ugly parts of our past and do everything we can to say “that’s not okay, let’s not honor those aggressors, let’s not let those things happen again”.

They say we want to take away your constitutional rights: we don’t, that’s a lie. We choose to believe science and wear masks and try to prevent the spread of this disease.

They say we hate America: we don’t, that’s a lie. We just recognize our faults and want us to do better, be better.

Stop with the us vs. them. Stop with the straw man arguments. Stop with the fake news. Stop with Fox News. Our position is one of empathy, compassion, and logic. Stop believing the hype. Stop with the division. Just because we want equality for all doesn’t mean we want to take anything away from you.

From Governor Huckabee:

Thanks for writing, Karen. You are a very thoughtful and idealistic person. But who is this “we”? When you say “we,” I don’t think you can include the leftists with power in the Democrat Party in your description of what “we” do and do not want. You are a moderate, and today’s Democrat Party is NOT moderate.

For example, it’s certainly not a “lie” to say that many who fund and support the Democrat Party and various leftist organizations want to defund the police. YOU don’t, but many of them do. Some in Congress openly call for it. Trump wants bad cops out, of course, but law and order and the safety of Americans is a must.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many who fund and support the Democrat Party want to open up prisons. YOU don’t, but many of them do. Brace yourself, but I’d say that your goals of rooting out racism in the prison system sound downright “Trumpian.”

It’s absolutely not a “lie” to say that many on the left want a “borderless” world. YOU don’t, but many leftists with a lot more influence than you want exactly that. I’m sure you know that the left is continuing to lie (REALLY lie) about Trump and the “children in cages.”

It’s not a “lie” to say that many on the left want to confiscate all guns. YOU might not, but it’s the dream of many in your party. With a handful of Supreme Court justices bent on reinterpreting the Second Amendment, they could do it.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many in your party want to wage a war on Christianity or Christian values. YOU don’t want to, but activists on the left are waging that war, mostly in courtrooms.

It’s not a “lie” to say that some people want everything for free. YOU don’t, but many do. Democrats are seriously considering how they’re going to do reparations. Rioters justify their looting. I’m glad to hear you have a sense of responsibility. Did you know that, by improving the economy so much, Trump had made it much easier for people to get jobs and work hard?

It’s not a “lie” to say that many want a war on traditional marriage. YOU don’t, but some do. (See “Christianity,” above.) The next step is abolishing even the idea of marriage as a partnership; why not polyamory? And over the past several decades, Democrat policies have helped destroy the traditional family — especially black families, where 70 percent are born out of wedlock and male role models are largely absent.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many on the left want to tear down or rewrite history. Oh, yes, they do. YOU might see it as “recognizing the ugly parts” and learning from our past. They see it not as a chance to learn, but to exercise mob rule, pulling down statues of … abolitionists, suffragettes, saints, whatever. Many don’t know what they’re doing. And a concerted effort to rewrite history is going on right now.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many on the left want to take away our constitutional rights. YOU apparently don’t, but many in your party do. I’ve touched on a few of these above. Another right that many would love to take away — and they’re working on it — is freedom of speech. As for masks, effective treatments, etc., there’s a LOT of dispute within the scientific community about all that, and, unfortunately, it got politicized.

It is absolutely not a “lie” to say that many on the left hate America. YOU don’t, but many do, from the rioters on Seattle streets to billionaires who fund your party and leftist causes. Some are calling for the outright destruction of our country. Thanks to them, America is far from “being better.”

I’d love it if you would show this letter to your family and friends, both left and right-leaning. It would be great to hear their reaction. I fear your idealism causes you to look at your party through rose-tinted glasses, ironically at a time when the left is finally showing its true colors. It might surprise you to hear that you sound in a lot of ways like today’s Republican Party. You really are too smart and thoughtful to be led around by the far-leftists of the Democrat Party. Maybe they’re not who you think they are. And I haven’t “lied” about them at all.

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.