Is America the greatest nation in human history? Or is it the worst? If you listen to progressives, it’s impossible to tell.

That’s because on the one hand, those on the left say our country is at its darkest moment ever, about to collapse under the weight of bigotry and prejudice. But on the other hand, they’re cheering the roughly 7,000 Central American migrants now making the trek through Mexico toward the U.S. border, assuring them that the American Dream awaits.

This doesn’t add up. Progressives are talking out of both sides of their mouths, showing that they’re cynics as well as hypocrites. If they actually believed that America is as awful as they claim, they’d be acting as if this were an irradiated wasteland, warning non-Americans to stay as far as away as possible.

In truth, progressives are playing a twisted political game. The migrants are genuinely destitute and the victims of corrupt, socialist governments – and their lives are being risked to score partisan points. They’re being turned into unwitting pawns.

And the migrants are being pushed into a physical and philosophical assault on our country, dismantling our border and our fundamental sense of fairness – an idea that for the left was once more than a bumper sticker slogan.

The migrant caravan won’t end well for anyone. Of course, that’s what progressives are betting on to make President Trump and the Republican Party look bad in the days before the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Progressives accuse conservatives of killing the American Dream. Yet they themselves are the culprits. Flooding America with unvetted individuals threatens the safety of our people, while a big influx of unskilled laborers punishes American workers.

Progressives can’t stop – or won’t stop – complaining about Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the “assault on our democracy.” That’s ironic. I’m pretty sure that openly backing thousands of people intending to violate our territorial sovereignty, in coordinated fashion no less, constitutes a blatant assault on our democracy.

What’s happening here is nothing more than the latest glaring example of the left’s hypocrisy. Sovereignty is only something to be protected when it serves the interests of the left.

Progressives, in their unguarded moment, are disclosing their animosity toward borders. While some on the left have remained fairly silent, many have passionately supported the caravan. What unites them all, however, is fear – fear that they will violate their sacred tenet: Thou shalt not insult a “historically-discriminated-against” group. Failure to be fully and sufficiently “woke,” they’re well aware, is a cardinal sin on the left.

This is a major reason America chose President Trump. Few people believe that thousands of people stampeding over each other and climbing fences should be allowed to enter a sovereign nation, let alone become citizens of that nation.

While I don’t doubt many of the migrants would benefit from living in America and contribute in certain ways, a nation can only be a nation if it takes care of its own people first.

To be a responsible nation – and to be one capable of preserving itself – distinctions must be made between citizens and non-citizens. It’s astonishing how far and how quickly the left has fallen. Not long ago, in the days of President John F. Kennedy, it was patriotic. It believed that America, despite its flaws, was exceptional and worth defending.

Then the left plunged into relativism. Anti-Americanism became its core tenet. Progressives claim not only that there is no such thing as a “citizen,” but that the very notion of one must be undermined. The caravan is their way of doing it right now.

A defensible border is the bare minimum of what makes a country. If progressives are willing to sacrifice laws protecting our territorial integrity, what other laws would they be eager to give up? I’m sure they wouldn’t tolerate trespassers in their own homes.

The reason the progressives don’t care is because they won’t be impacted. They’re sitting comfortably in their offices in Washington, San Francisco and New York City – preaching, posturing and pontificating. But if the land on the border were their own, or it were their jobs and physical safety on the line, they would act differently.

You didn’t see some 7,000 people in well-organized fashion march northward when President Obama was in office. There’s a simple explanation why: America is now great again, jobs are back, and the economy is growing at rates not seen in decades, thanks to President Trump.

The whole world got that memo – except those on the far left who continue to loathe not just our president but our country itself. Their cynically engineered caravan of migrants is designed to make a mockery of our laws and values.

Whatever the virtue-signaling progressives may think, the truth is that having open borders open to criminals, terrorists and refugees tells the world we’re anarchic. Open borders tell the world we don’t care about those who have gone through the proper channels, patiently waiting their turn and working hard to earn a place in America.

Progressives once championed a melting pot of different people with similar shared values. Now they’re hoping for a meltdown.