In Ohio’s senate race, Democrat Tim Ryan is running neck and neck with J.D. Vance, rightwing crank and inexplicable favorite of the NPR Totebagger set*. In terms of policy, I’m far from a huge (YOOGE!) Tim Ryan fan, but I have to admire how he is attacking Vance unrelentingly. At a recent debate, he not only attacked Vance for founding a bullshit ‘charity’, Ryan also went right at him about being a lickspittle coward who knuckled under to Trump–Ryan actually used the phrase “took his dignity from him.”

I have no idea if this will move the needle in this race, but I do think if Democrats had pounded Republicans on various character issues–and not kept pining for the mythical good Republican–like this, there would be a cumulative effect. The constant repetition of things like “You can’t trust him”, “He won’t fight for you because he is weak”, and the belief that some people don’t have to follow the rules (and you’re definitely not one of those people) would have a cumulative effect on Republicans as a whole.

But Democrats don’t do repetition, so who knows if this will save Ryan.

*Dear moderates and centrists, we told you this guy was an asshole, and that his book about the hillbilly life was dumb. We fucking told you.