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The Totalitarian Tactic of the Smear Has No Place in Our National Discourse

We can refuse to engage in the vicious name-calling and slurs that are tearing apart our country.
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The Totalitarian Tactic of the Smear Has No Place in Our National Discourse
A placard reading "NO! (with moustaches)" is pictured during a demonstration against racism, anti-Semitism and hate speech, named "Sea of lights for democracy" (Lichtermeer für Demokratie) at the Theresienwiese fairground in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 11, 2024. Lukas Barth/AFP via Getty Images
Jeff Minick
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Commentary

Thomas Jefferson proclaimed “all men are created equal” as a self-evident truth but was a slaveholder. Ulysses S. Grant led the Northern armies to victory in the Civil War but was a long-time alcoholic and also far too trusting of others, a fault that damaged his reputation and left him bankrupt at the end of his life. George Patton is recognized as one of our nation’s most brilliant generals but possessed an explosive temper and a gutter vocabulary to go with it.

Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.