The Mirror Over the Bed

A Minute of FilmTwo weeks before Ohio was to choose its next governor, a one-minute video began circulating online with no name attached to it. In it a woman named Donna Arthur looks into the camera and tells the viewer that her daughter has “a serious problem,” that she is a liar, that she lies about her past. The daughter is Amy Acton — physician, former director of the Ohio Department of Health, and the Democratic candidate. The past in question includes a stepfather charged with raping her when she was twelve, and her removal, along with her younger brother, from her mother’s custody. Her mother, the brother says, stayed married to the man (who fled before he could be tried, remaining a fugitive) until he died.By the following evening the Republican candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, had settled the question of authorship: “It is an ad from our campaign.” His campaign then announced it would spend four million dollars putting it in front of Ohioans.The outrage arrived on schedule, and…