Editorials
And the attacks begin ...
BY LEN TRIA, Uncommon Sense
Published: August 12, 2012
When do politics cross the line from policy disputes to personal attacks on character? It happens when one group follows the Saul Alinsky School of "Rules for Radicals."Published: August 12, 2012
It happens when you adhere to the philosophy of isolate, demonize and destroy your opponent by any means, which includes lying, false accusations and any other method it takes to accomplish the feat.
We have now entered a phase of the presidential campaign that is reprehensible. The administration has walked away from the latest toxic ad depicting Mitt Romney as the killer of some steel worker's wife.
The problem is the man's wife did die — but six years after Romney left Bain Capital, which the steelworker says cost him his health insurance when it closed down. The truth is that she had health insurance from her own employment and Bain Capital had in no way caused her death. But that doesn't matter, when the president has no record to run on but one of complete and utter failure.
Why is he not running on the positive accomplishments of the past four years as most other candidates have done since the founding of the republic? The reason is he cannot — because his record, when examined, doesn't merit his return to office.
Unemployment rates have risen, and the debt is approaching $16 trillion and will push this nation into a financial abyss that will cause severe repercussions for years.
The administration has very few if any positive ads about its accomplishments — such as 46 million Americans on food stamps while advertising in Mexico for more takers. Thousands of Americans have given up looking for work, but are not counted in the unemployment figure, which is really about 15 percent — not 8.3 percent, as the government is reporting.
Then we have the president's surrogates calling the challenger a felon and someone who doesn't care about people. They have gone so far as to have the Senate Majority Leader on the Senate floor — where he can't be held accountable for his slander — claim that Romney has not paid any income taxes for 10 years.
How absurd is that statement? Because it goes back to when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, and the IRS would have been all over him. But our president can make all kinds of accusations while he himself has sealed his school records.
Why doesn't he open up his past as he wants others to do?
The fact is that the present group of power-hungry people in the administration have one goal in mind, and that is to transform this great nation into a socialist country where the masses exist because the government provides for their meager existence, where private initiative is ended and the ruling class has all the benefits.
Len Tria, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill and is a former Hernando County commissioner.