Negative Campaigning

IN A SMALL RED STATE in the southern United States, a conservative Republican candidate for Congress is challenging the incumbent in the primary, with campaign ads which reflect his belief that if only he can "out-Trump" his opponent in a state where Trump received two thirds of the vote, he can win. The incumbent, reminds the challenger, has the audacity to assert that not only did Trump not win the twenty twenty election, but that he lost it by a wide margin.....The lines have been drawn, the litmus test established. If you are a Republican, and you accept the blatantly obvious reality that Trump lost the election, if you fail to embrace what sane America calls "the big lie", if you do not endorse and fully support Trump's attempt at stealing the election from Biden - you are unworthy for service in the United State Congress. The ad continues.....My opponent in this primary actually blames Trump for the insurrrection, (which he calls a "disturbance") at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. You blame the attempted violent overthrow of the United Stats government on donald J. Trump, you don't deserve consideration as the G.O.P. nominee for a seat in Congress. Never mind that Trump planned the insurrection weeks in advance, telling his followers on Twitter: "Be there on the sixth. It will be wild"...Then, at the rally prior to the insurrection, he told the angry mob: "Go the the Capitol and fight, or you're not gonna have a country anymore". And that is precisely what the angry mob did, it went to the Capitol and fought. But no, Trump bears no responsibility for the violence, according to standard Republican dogma. The incumbent has the further audacity to refer to Trump and his supporters as "extremists"! He dare he! Within the Republican party, try telling the truth, and you should be banished from the party, and from all possibility of holding high political office. The age of unreality, individual realities, and misinformation is, unfortunately, not yet at its apex. Years ago a friend of mine said: "I don't know what all this is about, but whatever it is, it isn't over yet, and won't be for a long time". A more accurate forecast has never been made.