Want to know what a stranger's political leanings are?  There is a simple question that may yield that information: ask him what the term Swiftboating means.

The stranger doesn't even have to provide a well formed, grammatical definition; rather, the answer you seek lies in the sense of whether it represents something positive or negative.  If he responds with something like this: "a harsh attack by a political opponent that is dishonest, personal, and unfair," which is the Wikipedia definition, then you should suspect that you are dealing with someone whose politics lean left, at least to the extent that he gets his news from the alphabet mainstream media.

If the person responds that the term describes the public exposure of a politician's claims to phony war heroism and undeserved medals, then you can be fairly certain you're talking to a conservative who gets his news from internet sources and perhaps Fox News.  You are also likely talking to a veteran.  That second definition is mine, by the way, because there is no positive dictionary definition of the term, as all dictionaries appear to be compiled by liberals.

If ever there were a clear exception to the truism that "victors write history," it is the concept of Swiftboating, which has been appropriated by the losing left and twisted into an epithet that, when directed your way by the liberal media, immediately labels you as some sort of especially treacherous turncoat.  We should learn a lesson from this: the liberal movement and specifically the liberal media know the value of controlling the language.  They took a term, Swiftboating, which should describe honorable behavior involving self-sacrifice by American veterans, and twisted it into something foul and fraudulent, the scarlet S of the 21st century, a bright burning brand on the brows of those brave men who gave up their private lives to save America from a commander-in-chief they personally knew to be a fake, a phony, a Stolen Valor fraud.

With the mainstream media dropping all pretense of being objective in the recent election and in the current campaign to unseat President Trump, we no longer have to question just how the treatment of the Swift Boat veterans came about.  From their first press conference, where the MSM discovered that the intent of these sailors was to attack John Kerry and his phony war record, the full wrath and fury of the elite liberal media institution turned on these small-boat sailors.  The media, in full sucking support of John Kerry, Democrat, first attempted to bury the Swiftees.  Then, when that didn't work, they leveled the big guns and did their very best to dishonor and discredit some very honorable combat veterans, depicting them as malcontents and men of no standing to challenge Kerry's lies.

I know I'm engaged in a Sisyphean effort here because of the massed forces of the liberal media and the natural fading interest of the public.  We tend to forget the past dishonesties of those reprehensible jerks, who laughingly purport to provide the "news" to a country they betray every day.  They perpetuate the lies they have imposed upon our history simply because they control the public discussion and recorded events.  So what I'm calling for is that those of you who agree with me – that the term Swiftboating has been so dishonestly turned upon its head to mean its opposite – will agree that it should be taught to our children as a term of high honor among those of us who refute the collectivist, leftist views of America's despicable mainstream media.  May I offer this description for Swiftboating?

An honorable attempt by brave men of loyal military service to identify one of them, who served among them, as not worthy of high elected office.

Sweet and simple, and as honest as it can be.  Tell it to Wikipedia.

Think about how naïve so many conservatives were back then in believing that the media are objective.