Why do candidates sling mud at their opponents? And worse, why do they repeatedly tell lies and falsehoods they know aren’t true? Just like their refusal to debate their opponents, mudslinging emanates from fear, a desperate attempt to hide the truth from the people.
Such tactics, which honest voters detest, stem from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, a leftwing playbook that Alinsky actually dedicated to Lucifer. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it,” Alinsky advised. State Senator Chad McMahan seems to have read it.
In the upcoming Republican Party primary for state offices in Mississippi, one of the biggest mudslingers, and proverbial liars, has been McMahan of District 6. His opponent, conservative challenger Lauren Smith, has been the subject of those mud-filled lies.
So, let us review a handful of Chad’s biggest whoopers thus far in the campaign:
1. The Lie: Chad McMahan said Lauren Smith wanted to “end Medicaid completely.”
The Truth: Lauren Smith, like Chris McDaniel and other true conservatives, opposes the expansion of Medicaid (part of Obamacare), which could potentially bankrupt the state.
2. The Lie: Chad McMahan said Lauren Smith wanted to “bring back the Confederate flag.”
The Truth: Lauren Smith supported Ballot Initiative 74, and has stated over and over again that she wants to give the people the right to vote on their own state flag. McMahan was part of the cabal of legislators who conspired to rob the people of their right to vote on it, after campaigning on giving the choice to the voters.
3. The Lie: Chad McMahan said Lauren Smith was in Washington DC on January 6 and was part of the “uprising” that stormed the Capitol building.
The Truth: Lauren Smith was not in Washington DC on January 6.
4. The Lie: Chad McMahan said Lauren Smith was going to prison, for her part in that January 6 “uprising.” Said McMahan to some constituents in District 6, “There are things I know that you don’t know. You just have to trust me on that.”
The Truth: Lauren Smith is not going to prison. She was not at the January 6 “uprising,” again to use McMahan’s own word.
5. The Lie: Chad McMahan said that Lauren Smith was a member of a hate group.
The Truth: Lauren Smith is not a member of a hate group. She started a civic organization called P.R.I.M.E. that stands for Patriots for Rights Integrity Morals and Ethics, the purpose of which is to promote the candidacy of true conservatives, a very noble effort and far from hate, unless of course McMahan believes conservative values to be hateful. In fact, McMahan’s use of that very loaded term, “hate group,” is straight out of the liberal Alinsky playbook.
In further evidence of McMahan’s use of Alinsky-style politics-of-personal-destruction tactics, he attacked Lauren Smith’s personal life and accusing her of owing back rent to many landlords. He has said of Lauren Smith, “This is one of the most evil, malicious and seditious people I’ve ever known.”
In addition to his fibs, McMahan has tried to silence and intimidate voters, for which he has had criminal charges filed against him for his conduct. After discovering that a constituent family, and former supporters, the Gunnells of Tupelo, had simply liked a Facebook post by Lauren Smith, McMahan dialed them up.
“You’re not in line, you’re not in sync to help you and your family,” McMahan told them.
Throughout his phone call with the Gunnells, McMahan never would reveal any hard evidence of anything, continually saying that they “need to just trust me” on everything, always a tell-tale sign of a liar. It is a very McCarthyite tactic – slinging accusations without any evidence to back them up.
To make matters much worse, in an earlier exchange, McMahan sought what amounted to a political bribe from the Gunnells after helping them with a Medicaid issue. “Well, that ought to be worth a $25,000 campaign donation, don’t you think?” It was shameful and conduct unbecoming a State Senator who is supposed to represent the lasting interests of the people, not intimidate them and shake them down.
Chad McMahan is also not very conservative. The American Family Association rated Lauren Smith as a “Conservative” in its recent scorecard but could only label McMahon as “Likely Conservative,” because of his voting record in the State Senate. He has voted for a pay raise for himself, voted to expand Medicaid (which is an extension of Obamacare), voted to killed the Senate district of Melanie Sojourner, who was one of the most conservative members of the Senate, and clearly aligns himself with Delbert Hosemann, the leader of the moderate wing of the Mississippi Republican Party, the same Delbert Hosemann who was once the director and Vice President of an abortion clinic in Jackson and who has almost single-handedly pushed the Mississippi Senate to the Left. And, along with Hosemann, McMahan opposed reforming the ballot initiative to give the people a voice in their own government.
Chad McMahan seems to have forgotten, if he ever knew, that a “public office is a public trust,” to borrow the words of Grover Cleveland. Officeholders are in power to serve the people, not to plunder them.
“We may rest assured,” John C. Calhoun once said, “that those who will play false to get power, will play false to retain it.” Never has a truer statement been made about the American system of politics. Politicians lie to gain office, then lie more to keep themselves in power, all while shunning issues important to the voters.
Chad McMahan and his campaign of lies and smears against Lauren Smith has no place in our public discourse. His behavior has shown that he has no business being anywhere near public office. His behavior points to a man who is feeding his craving for political office. Anyone who uses such nasty tactics to smear a good conservative opponent, while also refusing to debate, does not have the needs of the people in mind, only his own.
Ryan S. Walters 
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