I remember driving through Mason City during the last presidential campaign. There was a billboard and all it said was “Tulsi.” I knew who she was but I bet many people did not.

Mitt Romney has called her a traitor and a liar because she doesn’t support handing over our hard earned dollars to one of the biggest crooks of modern times, Velodymyr Zelensky. He shut down the three TV stations that openly criticized him, imprisoned the head of the opposition political party who had come in second in the election, and arrested that party’s leaders.

Many years ago I asked a local politician if he actually believed the War on Drugs stopped drug abuse or did he support it only to appear to care about the people caught up in that trap. That was after an opinion piece he had written and as far as I know, he never mentioned it again.

If we think of the World War II days (That’s two, not eleven as was the case in the experience of a teacher friend of mine.), “we” rose to the occasion as if money was no object. Now we have several conflicts in Africa, Myanmar, Haiti, and Yemen and human rights abuses in Western China. All have civil wars raging where there has to be a good guy who needs our support. If Mitt were to volunteer to help in all these countries he should to be extradited to stand trial for treason.

Treason, a serious charge and if true, as a senator he should press for Tulsi Gabbard’s arrest. But he didn’t because he knows he’s wrong. He knows he’s wrong to rob the American people to enrich the coffers of a foreign politician but he sees a tradition of corruption that shows no sign of changing.

We can go back to The Tonkin Gulf incident and the destruction of 60,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese. History has plainly shown the war was based on lies. Documents continue to be kept secret about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Trump promised to make them public. I wonder what prevented that.

The resulting presidency of Lyndon Johnson brought the biggest step toward socialism and perpetual war a single administration could produce.

The 9/11 attacks also remain a mystery as the investigation goes nowhere. The pleas of survivors and next of kin to make public all of the 9/11 Commission Report have been ignored.

Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura taught the Mitt Romneys of the world a valuable lesson: Don’t let outsiders and reformers be heard. When they were given a place in debate, the establishment found out somebody was listening. Ron Paul was called a racist and an isolationist, Tulsi Gabbard was called a Putin lover and an Assad sympathizer. Bernie Sanders was ignored but his arguments were so weak he didn’t matter anyway and he then supported Hillary Clinton, who might as well have spit in his face. I should have expected as much from a self proclaimed “democratic socialist.”

So when I hear a mainstream politician calling someone names I will now seriously consider that someone’s opinions.