The Quality of American Political Debate

Though many pundits of decried the increasing shrillness of American politics, they ignore an important point: it has (almost) always been this way. See shortly after the advent of universal white male suffrage and mass politics, campaigns have always had a nasty side and the rhetoric of public figures has been known to be intemperate. For example, during the presidential election of 1828, one anti-Jackson newspaper wrote that:

"General Jackson's mother was a Common Prostitute, brought to this country by the British soldier! She afterwards married a MULLATO man with whom she had several children, of which number GENERAL JACKSON (emphasis theirs in both cases) is one."

I'm sure this would throw the likes of the high minded Nicholas D. Kristoff into a fit about the incivility and nastiness of it all, but he and the elite press corps really ought to remember that politics has, is and will remain a contact sport. Rather than tut-tut partisans for bitter attacks on their opponents they ought to determine whether such claims or accurate or not, but then again that would require a level of work that most of commentators are unwilling to deal with.