Smears and character assassinations have been priority techniques of the Democrats used to destroy the reputations of their conservative Republican opponents.
This began with Barry Goldwater when he ran against Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Democrats alluded to a falsehood that Goldwater had a hand in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and compared him to Hitler. All untrue, but a smear nonetheless.
There’s a history of such behavior and tactics on the part of Democrats.
LBJ was able to install the socialist War On Poverty, but the poverty level, after some 50-plus years and $30 trillion, has stayed the same or increased. A total failure.
Thanks to Republicans, civil rights laws were passed in spite of Johnson. Richard Nixon was elected after Johnson and the Democrats spent the entire time of his presidency attacking him. He voluntarily resigned, facing impeachment after the Watergate scandal.
Jimmy Carter was elected in the aftermath of the Nixon scandal and was probably one of the worst presidents up to that time. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 and 1984. He was extremely popular, much to the dismay of Democrats. But the smear was that Reagan just wasn’t that smart and they made fun of his B-rated Hollywood acting roles, wife Nancy’s influence on him and more. In spite of all the smears, the people still loved him and his presidency was very successful.
The smear became even more pronounced after George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988. His vice president, Dan Quayle, was nice looking, qualified, and had a law degree, as did his wife. The media and the Democrats portrayed him as dumb and when he spelled the word “potato” wrong, they ran with that story continuously, and they didn’t stop there. Democrats also accused him of having an affair but that smear attempt was so preposterous, the story didn’t fly. Overall, it was very disappointing that Bush never fought back and defended himself. Never. A bad decision on his part.
Bill Clinton breezed into office with the help of the dismal appearance of Ross Perot splitting Republican votes. The media covered for the Clintons for the entire eight years in spite of the many scandals. Little did we know how much more this would occur with Hillary’s antics as secretary of state and as a presidential candidate.
When John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, the Democrats and the media pawns went ballistic. Palin was a popular governor of Alaska, very attractive and quite articulate when she spoke. In fact, her speech at the Republican National Convention in 2008 was so impressive, Democrat operative Van Jones later said on CNN that “she had the Democratic Party shaking in our (sic) boots.”
The left was so intent on Palin’s destruction, they sent a bastion of 50 lawyers to Alaska to dig up dirt on her. The best they came up with was some story she had actually tried to ban books in the library, which was untrue. CBS’s Katie Couric did not mask her confrontational attitude when she interviewed Palin in 2008. She asked what newspapers Palin read, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Sarah was taken aback by what seemed like an attack, saying “Yes, I read them all.” This is just one more example of the leftist media being confrontational when interviewing a conservative or Republican, versus the tone of interviewing Democrats, who typically get softball questions.
President Donald Trump probably experienced the greatest smear of all time. You can always tell when Democrats fear someone. One of New York’s longtime society/gossip columnists, Liz Cronkin, said she had covered Donald Trump for years and admitted she was always looking for something, anything to dig up on him. But through all of that time she revealed she had never found the dirt she’s sought.
However, the moment he came down that escalator in 2015 announcing his candidacy for president, the floodgate opened where he’d be constantly called racist, sexist, homophobic, a xenophobe and a misogynist, and was compared to Hitler.
There was the Hollywood Access tape of Trump and then-television host Billy Bush in a private conversation. Trump used locker room words and in spite of all the years passing, what followed was a list of women conveniently accusing Trump of sexual assault.
During the 2020 campaign, CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed one of the accusers who claimed Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room. She then said it was really kind of fun to be raped. Cooper couldn’t cut away from that interview fast enough.
Very importantly, the smears of FOX News must be mentioned. The left calls them “Fake News” and takes a shot at them at every opportunity. If FOX is so meaningless, why not ignore them? The realty is that FOX reports the messiness that the mainstream masses will not…like Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, his brother Jim, the authentic pictures of the “peaceful” riots, etc.
Such tactics also distract from the dangerous policies being created by the Biden administration and the U.S. House and Senate as dominated by the Democrats. The examples are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal plan to eliminate all fossil fuels in the near future and retrofitting all buildings in America as “environmental infrastructure,” at a cost, if enacted, of $93 trillion; defund, demean and decrease all police and their departments; higher taxes on hard-working Americans; open borders, infanticide; free everything to illegal aliens; free college and more.
The destruction of America is afoot.
Phyllis A. McKenna is a Stevenson Ranch resident. “Right Here, Right Now” appears Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.
