Decades ago, a now long-deceased Socred cabinet minister once jovially introduced me to his hardball philosophy of attack-politics: “Call ’em a pig-$%#r and let ’em deny it,” he said of the NDP, and like an idiot, I laughed. Stupidly, it stuck.

That crass credo somehow took on more legitimacy when I later learned it was reputedly coined by former U.S. president Lyndon Johnson.

For years, it too often informed my bare-knuckles approach to politics. Recently, a B.C. Liberal activist tweeted out a picture of Adrian Dix next to a picture of a weasel, ostensibly, in a dumb attempt at humour to equate the NDP leader with a “greased weasel.” Suffice it to say, it backfired. Badly. And so did B.C. Liberal MLA Kevin Krueger’s latest email blast to the B.C. Conservative Party, calling them “unmitigated morons,” thereby also kissing off its significant pool of supporters.

Step into the political arena and you will quickly learn that that vulgar approach is widely practised, in so many ways. At its core, it is a rude appeal to offence as the best defence and to dishonesty as the best policy in laying any opponent low with scurrilous assertions and damaging imputations that are designed to stigmatize and stick. It is all about hitting to hurt, keeping the Opposition off-balance and on the ropes, and anticipating and exploiting its counter-attacks.

Like throwing the first punch in a fight, the “art” is in knowing how and when to escalate each attack, when push comes to shove.

Such is the dark side of politics that so casually discounts the real people and reputations that so intentionally get trashed along the way. It was a nasty approach I know too well that also took its toll on the five leaders I served, especially on Gordon Campbell.

Certainly, he was not above responding in kind or dishing out his own share of attacks, especially in Opposition. Yet he also weathered some very hateful and unfair assaults on his character with aplomb and indifference, typically preferring to use new policies and ideas as his best weapons.

The closest parallel to today’s political environment was the 2001 election. In that campaign, we believed the best strategy was to take the high road and stay positive.

We firmly resisted the temptation to “go negative” in our advertising, confident that most voters had made up their minds about wanting change, despite our opponents’ over-the-top attack ads targeting the premier-in-waiting. We thought they just looked desperate, as had the Socreds’ last-minute attacks on Mike Harcourt. And we won the largest majority in B.C. history, by far.

Most voters are smarter than they are given credit for being by those who hope to manipulate them with malign intent. They know that parties that are down for the count are prone to spew things at thin air that usually just make them look worse. Strong leaders and positive parties can absorb many more unfair knocks against them than they might suppose. They can convert their opponents’ negative energy to their own advantage. Aggressors always look ridiculous if they are not connecting. They can easily exhaust their power and their credibility if the blows they are landing are not materially hurting. Such is the case today.