Why are conservatives such accomplished liars?

Doug Patton's July 15 column in Hernando Today uses a typical conservative ploy to paint liberals as bad people. He makes up stuff. He says, "Liberals revere their favorite socialists, past and present - Mao, Che, Hugo, Fidel and others."

That's ridiculous. Nobody reveres these monsters.

"Liberals point to the Holocaust as if it were the greatest mass slaughter in history." Isn't it? Is Doug anti-Semitic as well?

"It (racism) is found primarily on the political left, which is responsible for perpetuating racist policies like racial quotas and abortion."

Wow, Patton has assembled a whole list of conservative hot buttons to complain about in one sentence, dumping them all at the feet of liberals.

Painting the other guy as a racist is a tactic long used by racists.

Then he goes on to criticize Sonya Sotomayor, Ruth Ginzburg, Margaret Sanger and, of course, President Barack Obama.

Why isn't the venom aimed at Gov. Mark Sandford of South Carolina? He's the world class hypocrite.

Patton portrays his phony charges as facts, but Stephen Colbert calls these pronouncements "truthiness," statements that have the ring of truth but that are actually false.

When the Nazi's used these tactics, it was called propaganda.

Is that where he learned how to spew this kind of poisonous trash?

Doug, your picture makes you look like a fellow senior citizen. Do you cash your Social Security checks? (A Democratic initiative.)

Do you actually use your Medicare health insurance? (A dreaded liberal institution.)

Your writing is hypocritical and makes conservatism, a noble American political force, look like a form of mental illness.

I used to hear this kind of mindless rant from crazy people in the psychiatric ward where I trained.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

I recommend you stop using fabrications to paint others as devils so you can posture as a saint.

David A. Travland, Ph.D.

Spring Hill