How low can we go, we ask Ramaswamy

It’s been called the worst political hit job in history, but I can’t verify that.

What I can  say is this: Within the arena of low-down, lying, misleading half-truths, Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, seems to be searching for a new low.

His commercial has Democratic candidate Amy Acton being called a liar, by her own mother, Donna Arthur. 

Acton lied about her childhood, said Arthur in an unfocused video in which she does not appear to be a picture of health. 

That would be shocking by itself. However, even more shocking is the back story.

The back story, verified by court records, is that Acton, as a preteen, was raped by her stepfather, who was indicted by a grand jury. Her mother sided with the stepfather.

Acton and her brother were removed from her mother’s custody — it is highly unusual for a mother to lose charge of her children — when Acton was 12 and they haven’t spoken since then.

The stepfather was never tried because he fled before trial and died as a fugitive.

Whoever prepared that ad had to know the ugly back story, or is guilty of criminal neglect in not knowing it.

As of the time I file this, Ramaswamy has doubled down on the ad and refused to remove it, ignoring the cries of Democrats, of course, but even some principled Republicans.

That would not include Vice President JD Vance, the presumed heir to Trump. He warned the principled Republicans to “stop whining” and get with the program.

The program being an enormous smear.

What’s the word for this? Indecent will do.

—

Ramaswamy broke on the public scene in 2021 with the publication of “Woke, Inc.,” an attack on the rising Woke corporate culture, which I regard as the illegitimate child of Political Correctness. I hate the social, political and educational applications of Woke as well, because it views the world through the warped prism of oppressed/oppressor. It is anti-democratic and thinks merit is racist.

I had to explain that the current  Woke was not the same as the Old Original Woke. 

The attack on Woke was double good coming from a brown man who became a biotech billionaire in racist, white supremist America. 

Because, you know, that’s not possible. 😉

I saw him on numerous cable shows where he came across as super smart and down to earth at the same time.

I was very intrigued when he threw his hat into the ring and became a long-shot in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. (I also liked Andrew Yang, another nonwhite 1 percenter with big ideas, in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.) 

As a graduate of both Harvard (BA) and Yale (JD) you’d think Ramaswamy was smarter than this.

It seems a move motivated by desperation, as he is trailing Acton in the polls, outside the margin of error. It’s a Fail Mary pass.

Does he imagine this low-blow commercial will help him with women voters, traditionally a Republican hard sell?

With men? Not those who see, in an answering ad, Acton’s brother attest to the fact that his sister was abused physically and sexually.

The ad’s a loser, and so should Vivek.