Unpopular Opinion: If we can’t openly and calmly — without character assassination attempts and smears — talk about whether a gubernatorial candidate or her mother is the one lying, then we have a massive problem. Court records exist if there was a conviction for abuse. Cases involving custody often involve abuse and other grotesque claims — somewhere in the ballpark of 50 percent of contested divorces and custody cases. Family law attorneys routinely brief and coach their clients on how to gain an advantage using carefully crafted stories and constructed claims — there’s always a victim and a villain on both sides of the story. If we cannot talk about that without being guilted, shamed or defamed when we’re not the ones in the story (here, Acton, her brother, father, mother and stepfather), we are doing it wrong and have no legitimate claim to “vetting” the history or present M.O. of a candidate. This is not a claim that dropped 15 days before an election. Donna Arthur said all of this on the record in June 2020 — six years ago — when her daughter was Ohio’s health director, not a candidate for governor. She disputed the hardship story then. She said then that her daughter learned early that lying worked. She said then that she worried Amy was positioning herself for higher office. Acton resigned from ODH eight days after that interview published. AND LET’S BE VERY CLEAR HERE: The people saying they’re offended by this — David Pepper, the Acton campaign, the Democrats, progressives and even Republicans — publish accusatory propaganda all the time about the people and movements they identify as their ideological opponents. Candidates and campaigns routinely try to smear private citizens — Acton’s camp in particular, several times this cycle (both directly and indirectly). The difference here is that Acton is not a private citizen. She is a candidate who has been caught in several lies in this campaign alone. So I ask: What’s the standard?