Politics has always been divisive. At least today they're not accusing each other of actually committing murder or of planning to declare themselves King, or other wonderful things.
Grah! I was going to link to this article about 19th century Presidential politics, but the site's now a 404. I'll just have to link to an entry a while back (http://nik-xlii.livejournal.com/41147.html#cutid1) where I quoted some passages from it. Here's some fun ones: In 1876 one candidate, Samuel Tilden, could be cast as a drunken con man suffering from syphilis; the other, Rutherford B. Hayes, as a sociopath who had once shot his mother and who had pocketed the wages of slain soldiers he commanded in the Civil War. and [in the election of 1800] It was alleged that President Adams had ordered an American warship to journey to England and return with not one but two mistresses for him to enjoy. On top of his supposed sins from the last election, Jefferson was now—according to newspapers backed by Adams's party—a godless, lawless racketeer in favor of legal prostitution, incest, rape, marital infidelity, and the slaughter of children on spears.
By comparison, even Anne Coulter is a model of reason and moderation.
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ninetydegrees
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on 2007-10-30 10:12 pm (UTC)Grah! I was going to link to this article about 19th century Presidential politics, but the site's now a 404. I'll just have to link to an entry a while back (http://nik-xlii.livejournal.com/41147.html#cutid1) where I quoted some passages from it. Here's some fun ones: In 1876 one candidate, Samuel Tilden, could be cast as a drunken con man suffering from syphilis; the other, Rutherford B. Hayes, as a sociopath who had once shot his mother and who had pocketed the wages of slain soldiers he commanded in the Civil War. and [in the election of 1800] It was alleged that President Adams had ordered an American warship to journey to England and return with not one but two mistresses for him to enjoy. On top of his supposed sins from the last election, Jefferson was now—according to newspapers backed by Adams's party—a godless, lawless racketeer in favor of legal prostitution, incest, rape, marital infidelity, and the slaughter of children on spears.
By comparison, even Anne Coulter is a model of reason and moderation.