Presidential Elections and the Slingin' O the Mud
Last night our pastor gave us some examples, culled from several different books, reminding us that politics has always been dirty, and smear campaigns are nothing new. I jotted a few notes, as best I could, with whatever paper I had at hand, and although I didn't get them all, here are my notes, for your edification and hope that you will sally forth and explore more on your own:
Going all the way back to 1800's, when Thomas Jefferson was running for President, ministers lambasted him. There were cartoons that depicted him as a drunken anarchist. The President of Harvard said, "Our wives and daughters will become victims of legal prostitution."
In fact, some historians cite that year and the election of 1828 as the worst of dirty politics. 1828 was John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson - Adams portrayed Jackson as a vicious killer who shot nine of his own soldiers in cold blood.
Adams' father, John Adams, in an earlier campaign, had been called a "Rageful lying womanizing fellow." (In this day and age that might actually be considered a compliment . . . it'd probably even win you the election!)
Even in 1858, the Lincoln/Douglas debates, which unfortuneately were not recorded for posterity, were, by all accounts, rife with witticisms, criticisms, offhanded insults, and sarcastic slaps.
There were many others that I didn't get written down, but as I said, there have been several books written on the subject.
But you know, in many ways we are more mature now, let's face it, if McCain and Obama had been campaigning back in the early 1800's, posters would probably claim that McCain was a "lying spiteful planecrasher weakling who broke in the face of danger, a philandering playboy who left his ailing wife for the bed and money of a younger woman."
and McCain would write back that Obama was an "unloved half-breed who was raised with tropical pagans who had a secret agenda to rid America of Christianity and to make government interfere with every aspect of a citizens life."
Wait a minute!
McCain's campaign ALREADY SAID ALL THAT.
Well,
they didn't call him a "half-breed"
. . . . not directly, anyway.
VG
Going all the way back to 1800's, when Thomas Jefferson was running for President, ministers lambasted him. There were cartoons that depicted him as a drunken anarchist. The President of Harvard said, "Our wives and daughters will become victims of legal prostitution."
In fact, some historians cite that year and the election of 1828 as the worst of dirty politics. 1828 was John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson - Adams portrayed Jackson as a vicious killer who shot nine of his own soldiers in cold blood.
Adams' father, John Adams, in an earlier campaign, had been called a "Rageful lying womanizing fellow." (In this day and age that might actually be considered a compliment . . . it'd probably even win you the election!)
Even in 1858, the Lincoln/Douglas debates, which unfortuneately were not recorded for posterity, were, by all accounts, rife with witticisms, criticisms, offhanded insults, and sarcastic slaps.
There were many others that I didn't get written down, but as I said, there have been several books written on the subject.
But you know, in many ways we are more mature now, let's face it, if McCain and Obama had been campaigning back in the early 1800's, posters would probably claim that McCain was a "lying spiteful planecrasher weakling who broke in the face of danger, a philandering playboy who left his ailing wife for the bed and money of a younger woman."
and McCain would write back that Obama was an "unloved half-breed who was raised with tropical pagans who had a secret agenda to rid America of Christianity and to make government interfere with every aspect of a citizens life."
Wait a minute!
McCain's campaign ALREADY SAID ALL THAT.
Well,
they didn't call him a "half-breed"
. . . . not directly, anyway.
VG
posted by Verble Gherulous at 2/26/2009 10:05:00 am
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