You need to wonder who said what

     I saw a letter to the editor the other day that praised the virtues of an incumbent county commissioner in ways that suggests the politician has influenced the writer to the extent that you might wonder who wrote it.
     It starts off with an assertion -- the commissioner is very assertive; obnoxiously so, in my opinion -- that what follows are irrefutable facts. It continues in the way of engineers and other linear thinkers to set forth opinions.
    Also, like the politician to which the facts are attributed, it sets forth the opinions in numerical list form. First, Second, Third -- like that.
    Also, the facts are stated in such a way as to discredit not only the position of an adversary, but the critic, in a personal way.
    It's classic propaganda speak, such as has elevated this politician and made him the darling of shallow thinking followers (see how that works? That's a sample of what I said in the previous sentence, but at least I'm not being devious about it).
    You've noticed I have not mentioned the name of the politician -- or the writer defending him. The letter writer, assuming he wrote the letter, was exercising his right to freedom of speech. As for the subject of all this, I prefer to quote Samuel Johnson, who said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."