Andrew Server
aserver@uwyo.edu
Many pundits in politics nowadays will try to convince you that political campaigns are resorting to the most dastardly and deceitful tactics imaginable. They’ll unabashedly purport that we are on the brink of a second civil war. Even politically apathetic individuals will tell you that politics these days are too dirty and consist of nothing but candidates trying to expose each other as being shadier than the other. All these people are not necessarily wrong- politics is oftentimes an awful game and brings out the worst in many activists. That being said, political campaigns are by no means the worst they’ve ever been. In fact, they’re far cleaner and more accurate than they have ever been.
Flashback to the first United States election in 1800 where John Adams was running against Thomas Jefferson. The Adams campaign slung such slanders as claiming Jefferson to be a “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.” Against Adams, the Jefferson campaign levied attacks such as calling him a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” These slurs are indeed not only hard hitting, but slanderous and oftentimes improvable. Furthermore, as we see political parties having influence in modern media today, candidates and money influenced popular pamphlets and media in the times of the election of 1800 as well. Jefferson funded one particular pamphlet production that proved to be so incendiary against Adams’ character that its author was imprisoned for slander.
Incendiary tactics were not only seen in the Jefferson and Adams campaigns, but also seen in politicians throughout our country’s history. Andrew Jackson would fight and beat up his political opponents. Alexander Hamilton was even shot by his political opponent Aaron Burr in a duel. Leading up to the Civil War, Rep. Preston Brooks from South Carolina caned Rep. Charles Sumner from Massachusetts to a bloody pulp on the floor of Congress over dispute regarding Sumner’s statements regarding the South and slavery. These reactions and slanders in politics grew sparser and sparser as time has pressed forward.
As we look around at politics today, it is certainly easy to believe that politics is at the dirtiest and most polarized point that it has ever been. However, this is simply not true. Our general populace is not as polarized as pundits claim. Politics isn’t as rank with mud slinging as they purport. You no longer see canings on the floor of Congress or duels when politicians face their opponents. With the Internet and ease of access to fact checking, you see fewer and fewer slanderous accusations- especially not like those Adams and Jefferson levied against each other. Politics are and always will be oftentimes underhanded and dirty. That being said, we’ve come so far from where we used to be. We now are seeing more cordial and quality campaigns (relatively speaking). Well, with an exception granted to the Donald Trump campaign, of course.
