Ramaswamy humanized his opponent and dehumanized himself

October surprises are nothing new and are now to be expected. Every time a news story breaks the October before the election, people try to tie it to said election whether it really matters or not. Osama Bin Laden made an appearance in 2004. The “Access Hollywood” tape. The James Comey investigation. Heck, even the rioting in France is being looked at as one that would help the Republicans as they look to prevent a bloodbath at the ballots.

But Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, in his effort to slander his Ohio gubernatorial adversary Amy Acton (D), instead committed the cardinal sin of politics. He completely humanized her.

Ramaswamy released an ad in which Acton’s mother said she was not to be trusted, lied about her youth, and lied about the hardships she faced. I have racked my memory and could not think of a time when a politician’s own mother spoke out against him or her. The closest I could get was Pete Hegseth’s mother’s emails, from which she later walked back.

Now if you asked me what I knew about Acton before this past week, I would have told you that she was a doctor, she came to prominence during COVID and that she was a Democrat. That’s it. I have a sneaking suspicion that anyone outside of Ohio who wasn’t an ardent politico would probably have known just as little.

But this week, I learned that she endured the unendurable as a child. She went through a trauma that no human should ever go through and she protected her brother in the process. I learned that her abuser was a man who lived in her house and was........

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