Essential Reading. This book is well documented and illuminating in helping one understand the state of political discourse and campaigning. I have this idealistic view that candidates for office and their operatives ought to tell the truth and be civil. The objective should be to honestly present one values and goals, allow your opponent to also present his/her values and goals, and let the people decide in an open and fair way for whom they wish to vote and otherwise support. Instead what seems to be happening is to try to finagle support by any means possible, including intentionally deceiving the populous about your actual agenda and plans, totally smearing and distorting the values, goals, and personal character of your opponent and if possible to silence the opponent and his/her opponents from presenting their ideas in the first place. This latter point is the primary focus of the book. It repeatedly documents where concerted efforts are made to attack (sometimes physically), shame and intimidate in nasty and crude manners supporters of political opponents in order to silence them and have them suspend support. It is really the politics of personal destruction in order to win politically. Ms. Strassel has done us all a favor to give us a sense of the ugliness of the process and perhaps calls us to work to reform it. Would it not be nice if we could make our democratic decisions based facts, truth and reasoned and civil debate, rather than distortion, outright lies, character assassination and intimidation?