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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe death of civility
There was a time when the media was outraged when Bob Dole told George Bush One to stop lying about his record. That sounds very tame compared to today's rhetoric.
There was a degree of civility that was expected from our leaders. That has disappeared with the appearance of Donald Trump on the scene. Anyone goes. Call your opponent any name you want. The media, which should be a referee in our politics, has no idea how to report on the new vulgar nature of politics.
It is sad to see such a rapid decline in civility and common sense in our politics. A big majority of our voters are ripe for the picking. This is a threat unlike any we have seen, at least since McCarthy times.
Archae
(46,260 posts)John Adams passed and enforced a LAW that made it a crime to be critical or the government.
It was called the Alien and Sedition Act.
Andrew Jackson was viciously attacked, even accused of murder.
Lincoln was caricatured wanting whites to marry blacks. When slavery was still common in the South.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)Archae
(46,260 posts)And what his goons pulled.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)They were crooks but they were more civil than the present crooks.
elleng
(130,126 posts)'criminalized making false statements that were critical of the federal government (Sedition Act).'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts
tymorial
(3,433 posts)Or was that okay because he was a terrible president? I am no fan of Bush but this argument is convenient. There are a multitude of reasons to attack trump without creating the impression of hypocrisy.
I am certain my comment will result in swift condemnation, labels of Republican, traitor etc etc but I stand by my statement.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,846 posts)I called him Chimp-in-Chief.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)which is about his temperament and incivility.
Chiyo-chichi
(3,562 posts)Democrats might not have been... certainly not DUers, myself included.
But Trump has certainly crossed a line in the modern era in terms of what comes out of the mouth of a major party candidate about his opponent.
To expand on kentuck's point, I remember when it was considered rude that H.W. Bush wouldn't refer to Dukakis by name or title in the debates. He would just refer to him as "he." Bush picked that up from Reagan, if I recall... probably at Lee Atwater technique.
Yes, "Nixon's goons" and surrogates for presidential candidates have said and done a lot of things. But now we have a major party candidate calling his opponent a bigot during a rally. I think that's unprecedented in the modern era.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)Not even Nixon would speak in such tones in public or in rallies.
LongtimeAZDem
(4,494 posts)speaking about candidates Bill Clinton and Al Gore, 1992.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)in my opinion.
Orrex
(63,084 posts)I mean, look at 1842, when no less a personage than Charles Darwin was so moved by American civility that he felt inspired to pen the following:
Yes, we're certainly a lot less civil than we used to be.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)it is difficult to find it in a presidential candidate.
Jade Fox
(10,030 posts)is truly disturbing.
And yes, the media is clueless -- and cowardly. Apparently they are terrified of being called biased by Fox News et al if they just report the truth and ignore the spin.
unblock
(51,974 posts)there's been a slow but steady decent on the republican side going back to reagan & gingrich.
they weren't saints before that, but they weren't trending up or down. they were generally decorous and respectful but got their jabs in politely. they would surround the insults with praise. "my dear friend the senator from the great state of new jersey's shortcomings in the ethics department won't keep us from going forward with this great bill he sponsored."
steadily, they dropped the window dressing and the praise and the co-operation and formality and decorum and amped up the negative. it's been a long process.
now, finally, they're left with completely bald insults like "hillary is a bigot."
trump is different only because he's the one who removed the last bit of decency, but let's be realistic, the decency has been eroding steadily for decades.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)There was a point when a Congressman from South Carolina stood up on the floor of the House during a State of the Union and yelled "Liar" at our first African-American President.
unblock
(51,974 posts)Brooks was a fervent advocate of slavery and states' rights. He is primarily remembered for his May 22, 1856 violent assault upon abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner (Free Soil-Massachusetts), with a cane on the floor of the United States Senate. This was in retaliation for an anti-slavery speech by Sumner in which Sumner verbally attacked Brooks' second cousin,[1][2] Senator Andrew Butler. Brooks' action was applauded by many Southerners and abhorred in the North.[3] An attempt to oust him from the House of Representatives failed, and he received only token punishment in his criminal trial. He resigned his seat in July 1856 to give his constituents the opportunity to ratify his conduct in a special election, which they did by electing him in August to fill the vacancy created by his resignation. He was reelected to a full term in November 1856 but died five weeks before the term began in March 1857.[4]
Sumner was seriously injured and unable to take his seat in the Senate for three years, though eventually he recovered and resumed his Senate career.[5]
Brooks' act and the polarizing national reaction to it are frequently cited as a major factor in the rising tensions leading up to the American Civil War.[6]
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)The Revolutionary press was an underground operation and very effective, but without a revolution, it was pretty shit-in-pants in performing its "fourth branch of government," preferring instead to serve as hand maid to corporate interests and as hired-gun provocateurs. Really, only in the last century did it develop into a reasonably responsible mass media at times even taking leadership on fundamental issues. Now, with the collapse of MSM and the concomitant rise of the innertubes, it has fallen back into the old ways. I don't think it views itself as a fourth branch any longer, only various entities struggling to survive in an era of bouncing boobs, screwballs and sport-hate. They damn well will not question corporate power.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)kentuck
(110,950 posts)If so, we will lose this election. Because if we have citizens that are so blind to the changes before us, we are lost.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)then say so. Because the accusations of all kinds of bad shit have been rife on both sides of the aisle for DECADES - whatever the crime, you name it: someone politically important has accused someone else (also politically important but from the opposition) of doing it.
And you know that FULL well.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)I guess we will just have to disagree.
former9thward
(31,801 posts)In the 1800 campaign Jefferson attacked President Adams calling him a "hideous hermaphroditical character."
Political supporters of President Adams fired back with invective of their own, accusing Jefferson of being "the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." President Adams refused to attend Jefferson's inauguration.
In the 1828 campaign of Adams vs. Jackson, Jackson was the target of a series of political pamphlets that became known as the "Coffin Handbill." The first handbills accused Jackson of the callous execution of several U.S. Army deserters during the Creek War in 1814 and the massacre of Native Americans, including women and children. The attacks even extended to his family, with later handbills accusing Jackson and his wife of adultery and his mother of prostitution.
http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0912/attack-ads-of-our-founding-fathers.aspx#ixzz4INKQJk00
Every election, including all of modern times, have had one version or the other of this. The unchained internet and social media have only increased it ten fold.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)Or read about it a few weeks later when they received the news...